Originally Posted by baseball

people can have various take-aways and opinions on it. there was never a loss of "cool." It was a deliberate and premediated movement that was directed to get the attention of the union and management.

Management can manipulate a union to good effect by running the act and by using the CBL/and RLA against it. However, it does a poor job in this regard if the union does not have firm control over all it's pilots.

The FUPM movement was also about getting ALPA off its butt and advancing the cause of the pilots.

In many parts of the country, colloquial terminology, slangs, slogans, short-hands, etc work to good effect in building grass roots support and in gaining and maintaining momentum.

At that particular time, a change in approach both internally and externally was required. Internally within CAL ALPA, and externally with management.

You may consider it rude, but that's OK. It may be unprofessional. And that's OK too. Just realize the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Playing nice all the time gets you squat. We were really good at staying in our sandbox and coloring between the lines.

FUPM kicked it up a notch and I don't think anyone at any level ever took it personally or was in anyway long term harmed or got their feelings hurt.

Remember, ALPA pilots for the most part aren't Enlish majors, they aren't technical writing geeks. They just want to be paid for their services and in a fair manner. That's the goal. Get paid!

FUPM says what it means and means what it says. it's direct and to the point. 30% of the stock price is labor stability. A bunch of FUPM bracelets at stock share holder meetings would certainly get the attention of the board and the institutional investors. It could have made a big difference if that got into the news that the CAL pilots had such loathing and disrespect for Fred Abbot and his minions that we were willing to wear the bracelet as an outward and visible expression of our discontent.

I for one was out of patience with the CAL MEC and CAL management. All grass roots movements start somewhere. If there had been any viable alternative I would have been more than interested in pursuing it, but none seemed apparent and I don't recall much discussion about alternative approaches. You gotta be willing to rock the boat sometimes, especially if its for the right reasons.

Originally Posted by baseball

Nope. Been based in Houston my entire career. gagged and choked, and water-boarded on ops group Kool Aid served up by PJ Markovitz, Bruce Stone, and AJ Bertuli, Mike Weller for way too long.

The turning point for me was early in my career as a new hire, had a scab Captain personally invite Lorenzo up to the flight deck for a visit. Wanted to thank him for making his career possible. This dude was an engineer on the 72, FO for 3 weeks, and then a Captain. That dude, and all his friends showed me all I needed to see. I looked at Lorenzo with a blank stare, and I walked off the jet. The airplane departed 20 minutes late so I could collect my thoughts and my emotions. FUPM sums it up ok. I probably would have come up with a more harsh bracelet in all honesty.

I was in disbelief that anyone could personally thank Lorenzo. I was in further disbelief that a Captain would not consider his FO and rub it in my face as to invite this bum up into my office. So, These kinds of Captains came into power in the union after the furlough just due to sheer numbers. they voted in a block and the prevented our union from acting like, sounding like, and behaving like a union.

When the scabs took over the CAL MEC for a period of time it was quite demoralizing. We all knew we were fighting ourselves before we could effectively fight management. Had to wage our own civil war as it were. Had to root out the low expectations and kool aid drinkers. moreover, pilots had to urinate in the grog bowl and shake things lose.

It is what it is. it's just part of the left over legacy of being an airline run by a scab management. CAL had it's problems, and so did UAL. They had their problems too. I think we all know before you can have unity you gotta figure out your internal problems. Management unfortunately feasts at the table of disorganization.

just look at where the old former CAL NC ended up. That to me speaks volumes about where the problems really were. It blows me a away that we can have so called union servants negotiating on our behalf on a Tuesday, and then next Thursday they are all at the table, but working for management. Oh yeah, they took their negotiating notes with them. nuts.

But to answer your question, I was in high school in 1986, so no I wasn't at any of those places.

It could happen again. Not a strike mind you, but it could very well happen again that a union gets too cozy with management, too comfortable with the company fed expectations. We should learn from the past. We should be ready for the company line. We fighting the RJ issue with Kirby? We better be ready for his sales pitch. A FUPM type groundswell could happen if the pilots feel threatened, or feel our issues are not being championed. Is it bad to have a ground swell or grass roots movement? I don't know, but it's reality. ALPA calls it "militancy". The union doesn't speak ill of it, just identifies it as a percentage. Roughly 10 percent is a safe number of where your sheep are as well as where your militants are. For every guy with a FUPM bracelet there was probably a guy with a PNWM bracelet (play nice with management).