Originally Posted by
HvypurplePylot
I’ll see you there Tony. I genuinely appreciate your drive and determination. I wish it was focused about 65 degrees in a different direction but it’s better than what most of our group puts out there. You see it as failed leadership. I see it as a group that has never nor will ever trust a union and deep down isn’t comfortable with being apart of one. At the end of the day I focus on trying to bring more into the fold, through direct communication and my union work. I see your approach as sowing seeds of doubt, in leadership and the union in general. We could go back and forth on that but I don’t really think it accomplishes anything.
That's the thing. Even those who disagree on a lot of things can stand shoulder to shoulder in support of a good cause. We've done it many times before, and I have no doubt that we can do it again. We just need a little leadership and encouragement. I have more faith in the membership than many of our leaders give them credit for.
I had a professional driving course instructor explain it like this. Most drivers think they are better drivers than most other drivers on the road. Most drivers think they are better than other drivers they personally know, but those drivers are in turn better than most other drivers on the road. Obviously they can't all be right. Similarly, we tend to trust ourselves to do the right thing more than we trust others we know, and trust them more than those we don't know. At the same time, those people who we don't know tend to trust themselves more than they trust us to do the right thing. It's not until we observe each other doing the right thing that we learn to trust and depend on and rely on each other to do the right thing.
Building trust and unity recognizes those dynamics and requires gradually increasing opportunities to display behaviors that instill trust and unity. Little things like wearing lanyards and displaying bag tags might seem insignificant on their own, but when we see each other intentionally acting in small ways to build trust and unity, we learn to rely on each other for bigger things and more substantial behaviors. Leadership plays a critical role in building unity and trust by educating, motivating, and cultivating opportunities. It cannot simply be turned on like a switch. It takes mentors, and those who lead by example. And, like it or not, whether they are aware of it or not, our elected representatives are leading. They're either leading us to emulate positive behaviors, or they're leading us to do nothing, to carry on like everything is situation normal, go about your business. I think it's the latter, and I think that's why you have such little faith in the pilot group as a whole.
I'm not trying to sow seeds of doubt about the union in general because I think it's made up of mostly good people. I am critical of elected leaders when I think they're failing to lead us in the right direction. I think we have unlimited potential to succeed, but they're failing to take us down that road.
But, hey, I'm always open to debate as long as our ultimate goal is to benefit the pilot force. And even if I'm skewed 65° off, that still moves me 42% along the X axis.
.