CHP1

First post. Couldn't take it any longer.

MEC Chairman pens a letter essentially talking about unity, about taking care of each other. The majority of the letter is what you would expect from an MEC Chairman. Towards the end of the letter, however, the Chairman addresses non-lanyard wearing pilots and essentially lays blame at their feet for 3 specific, troubling areas of the contract, and other unspecified "list goes on" items that are unacceptable. He states that if you don't wear an ALPA lanyard, you are okay with these things. Are you kidding me? Is it possible the the 2015 Negotiating Committee was okay with these things? Is it possible that the 2015 MEC was okay with these things? Is it possible that every "yes" voter was okay with these things? Of course they were because everything the Chairman has issues with is allowable under the contract that we now work under.

In that one paragraph, the Chairman manages to divide the crew force like no other single act by any entity, be it management, MEC officer or individual pilot. Every "no" voter on the last contract, lanyard wearer or not, should take offense at these allegations. The 1 MEC officer who voted not to send the 2015 TA to the membership should take offense at these allegations.

We are told: "wear your ALPA lanyard" and soon we will be told to repeat the "My negotiating committee speaks for me" mantra. Let's see, haven't we been told those same things on the last 4 negotiations/TA/contract go arounds? How did it work out those last four times? By the Chairman's own admission, it didn't work out so well on at least the last contract. The Chairman, in his letter, quotes one Edmund Burke who stated, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." Hmmm.... Just saying.

Ladies and gentlemen, if our leadership is hanging the quality of our next contract on the wearing of lanyards and mindlessly repeateing, "my negotiating committee speaks for me," we are up a creek with no way to propel ourselves out of it. We need to take emotion out of this and treat it like the business dealing that it is. We need to start hearing things from the MEC like: "You have our word and commitment that we will not send a TA to the membership that doesn't meet everything that polling data indicates the membership demands." We need to operate under these premises: "My MEC answers to us;" and "My Negotiating Committee answers to us." We need to hold our leadership's feet to the fire. When these things happen, watch what happens to unity.