Originally Posted by
Tuck
I think you understand most of the issue but not all of it.
1. National priorities are set by National - Fedex has exactly 6000 votes of the 60,000 votes or so - 1/10. Whereas UPS IPA priorities are set by UPS. We don't have to agree but if national wants to spend $2million from the MCF to help out a small Canadian regional or advocate for policies that may help pax carrier but hurt cargo carriers they can - every time. Just like if national wants to put little effort into stopping remotely operated cargo ops, they can - we get about 1/10 of the votes in that.
2. My point in BOD representation was that the entire FDX MEC represents far less than the entire regionals even though we give far more in dues money.
3. There's no doubt we n eed a union - the question for me is if Fedex pilots' interests are best served by being in ALPA or something else? Let's not compare how we were 24 years ago - we are completely different now. It's better to look at what the IPA lacks that ALPA offers - I'm not sure there's anything. If you have some examples, please list them.
4. We have exactly one EVP - there is exactly 1 EVP within ALPA that represents cargo - all the small cargo carriers share their one EVP with the far greater number of pilots in the smaller regionals. Cargo will also have a very small voice within ALPA - even when we have a former Fedex pilot at the head.
That’s the thing with constituencies. Just like in our MEC we have reps with differing priorities depending on them or their constituents’ demographics. That’s what you get when you have a democratic republic type of organization. In that type of governing structure, there will ALWAYS be compromises that are best in whole. Nothing different there when it comes to National or our own MEC.
Yes, the IPA, as a whole, does have one set of priorities (that was a compromise between their reps). But how much do they have in the form of influence where it counts? I have yet to see a representative invited to testify before congress from the IPA. Nor have I seen any IPA reps in advisory committees either. And even if they do eventually get on one, their influence will be directly proportional to the number of their members compared to ALPA.
Let me put it this way since you mentioned FDX being the only large cargo carrier in ALPA, what if IPA merged with ALPA? What would us pilots as a whole gain? Wouldn’t that be better than being independent and losing all influencing abilities, especially considering that national cannot affect our internal issues and how we decide to handle them? I mean, I would be all for changing the name of ALPA to IPA if it meant we are all in the same union. The letters don’t matter, it’s the people that matter. And when we unite, we have a bigger stronger voice. Each MEC is its own entity when it comes to their own company issues but come together when it comes to the piloting profession as a whole.
Originally Posted by
Nightflyer
It is also a fact that the signature of the ALPA national president is on our contract. Are you sure he does not have input, when he gets to sign off on it?
For example, some folks at ALPA don't want full per diem because it is not pensionable earnings. Another way of saying it doesn't generate dues. Full per diem would really add tax free dollars to the pay of all of our international flyers, but you watch, we will get nickels and dimes. No dues money from per diem, so no large per diem increases. Seems suspicious to me.
Show me the last time the president didn’t sign a contract or LOA? Maybe happened once 30 years or so ago. The president is required to follow the administrative manual when it comes to signing his name. As long as the MEC followed the administrative manual when it comes to the negotiation, he has no basis to not sign it. And the interpretation of any of that is not up to him, anyway. The EC has that power.
As for perdiem, like I said, absolutely positively no person at National can tell any MEC what to what not to negotiate for. I mean, they can say not to, but the MEC can laugh it off and ignore it.