Originally Posted by Boeing Aviator

This guy has the character & integrity to be ALPA President, I think not!

From GK on another forum.



This is in response to a comment by SS on another thread wherein he expressed concern about the Board Travel issue. I feel the content needs to be stand alone.



SS, in politics that’s accurately described as graft. Why most of the MEC would tolerate it is symptomatic of the problems in our union. Having said that, Council 5 has taken positive action to begin to fix it. Councils 57, 33, 171 and 34 are engaging in that process, putting an end to the graft and patronage.



Looking at the last six years it’s not hard to see how we got here. The pilots are outraged with the Tumi TA, and we are now seeing unprecedented recall attempts and so far one successful recall in the UAL MEC’s largest council. The outrage is caused by underlying disease which led to the TUMI TA. It is worthwhile for pilots to keep some things in mind as they ponder how we got here and why things have gone so terribly wrong. Over the last six years things have been relatively (until the pandemic) stable and threat free. Pilots let their guard down and are thus susceptible to those who would take advantage.



HOW WE GOT HERE: PATRONAGE and PUNISHMENT PATRONAGE: the MEC budget expenditures virtually doubled under Insler. Most of that went to flight pay loss. It’s natural for volunteers wanting to get time off to do union work to be paid, and it has always been (for my 38 years) a constant battle between a Secretary/Treasurer – or Treasurer and to the volunteers to maintain a balance. Union work is supposed to be volunteer work. Under Insler’s tenure it has become a rewards game. He has given them unprecedented amounts of membership money to be on flight pay loss. It’s hard to criticize issues that need criticizing when your boss is giving you that great deal.



PUNISHMENT: We know of a number of cases of outstanding pilots who have been removed from important MEC leadership committee positions as punishment for being critical of the Master Chairman/Insler. Two of the most effective ALPA volunteers, EP, and JC, were not re-elected as Hotel Committee Chairman and member (one of our most important committees) because of their criticisms with the Master Chairman, and because they were “too strong” in their advocacy of the pilots. We know of another case where a potential LCA was told that he had to stop being critical of the Master Chairman if he wanted to become an LCA.



PUT ON AN ISLAND: A perfect example are the Council 12 officers. In years past it was natural for an MEC to have proponents and critics of MEC leadership. Effective MEC Officers embraced (more or less) both and listened and properly responded. Over the last six years anyone who disagreed with MEC Chairman Insler would be “Put on an island.” They were ostracized, had donuts dumped on their computers, were intimidated, not invited to social events or telephone conference calls, and were kept out of the information loop. The Chairman of Guam (Council 173) was threatened by two of he recently recalled officers of Council 5, Johnson and McCullough. Johnson told him that if he didn’t vote as they desired that he would, “Drop six tons of bricks” on him. Article VIII charges were brought on Johnson and McCullough. The ALPA National Hearing board found their testimony “not credible.” This kind of behavior, while typical of autocrats, is completely out of line in what is supposed to be a bottom-up organization. ALPA protocols have always been for officers to stay out of other officer’s council’s business.



SELF DEALING: An LEC officer from C34 (Tom Murphy) who votes to increase monthly cash incidentals to the MEC Officers to $2,000/month, a 100% increase, then gets himself elected to MEC VC.



CHARACTER ASSASSINATION: I can speak to this one personally. When I was running for MEC Vice Chairman (a position I previously held in 2010/11) MEC Chairman Todd Insler told a number of LEC Officers that I had “pulled a knife on former LCAL manager, JS.” This never happened but it created doubt in their minds in what was an incredibly close vote. I lost that election by one or two votes. Insler had previously told pilots that I had “tried to grab an FFDO’s gun,” in the cockpit of a flight I was jumpseating on. Such lies, rumor, innuendo are effective at destroying an individual in the minds of those who might vote for them. For the record - neither of those things ever happened.



CONSOLIDATION OF POWER & SELF DEALING: Insler convinces the MEC to do away with two term term limits - for himself.



CONSOLIDATION OF POWER: Provision allowing MEC to decide who the UAL BOD pilot representative shall be removed. They change it to be the MEC Chairman. MEC Chairman becomes more powerful, MEC less powerful, which all adds up to less powerful membership.



GRAFT: The MEC Chairman received a gift from UAL BOD worth potentially $15 million.



CARRYING THE CORPORATION’S WATER: Insler tells the world that the 737 Max training was fine, that pilots “don’t need to know how it works, it’s like watching TV.” This is a break from every other pilot union leader and turns out to be consistent with Boeing and some of their executives and employees who are or were under Federal indictment. Siding with Boeing and abandoning ALPA’s most basic philosophy, Schedule with Safety.



VIOLATION OF STANDARDS AND NORMS: For as long as I have done ALPA work, at all levels from LEC Chairman, to a number of MEC Committees, to MEC Vice Chairman, the standard and protocol has been that committee members stay out of the politics. Yet today we see individuals like SK (ALPA committee representative) running a forum, passing judgements, banning other members, and very much involving himself in the politics of the pilots. Of course there is nothing illegal or violative of policy about this - but the norm was established to prevent the kinds of things we’re seeing today.



NEW RESTRICTIVE POLICY ON ALPA REPRESENTATIVES TO CONTROL THE MESSAGE:



New policy was passed demanding that any ALPA representative must not be critical of ALPA, under penalty of punishment. All I can say to that is, WTF? One of the most basic tenets of union membership is freedom of speech. All members. We have asked for volunteers to be respectful of the political process and not stick their noses into other council’s business, but we have never stifled their rights (or the rights of the membership) to speak their minds.



UNETHICAL ACTS OF PROPOGANDA – FACEBOOK CLONING: Fake Facebook profiles were created that attacked members in good standing on the Facebook forum for being critical of Insler or JB, MEC Spokesman and Insler college buddy. When discovered and outed JB immediately reports his Facebook page was “hacked.”



VIOLATION OF FEDERAL UNION ELECTION RULES/LAWS

The former Council 5 officers violated ALPA policy and Federal Union Law when they improperly used union resources to win an election. ALPA National was thus forces to hold a new election to comply with the law.

ALPA representative, BW improperly sent a letter during the Council 5 recall using the ALPA election mail system, this prompted a corrective letter from the VP of Administration at National.



These individuals preach that they are the reasoned voice of representation, that they are the EXPERIENCED leaders, yet constantly fein ignorance as they repeatedly violate their own rules and laws to game the system. You can’t have it both ways.



BLURRING OF THE LINES BETWEEN COMPANY AND UNION:

Just this past week we heard a Council 5 candidate for office who has worked in the Chief Pilots Office for three of his six years on the property (according to his LinkedIn page) publicly express disgust for how members at the council expressed themselves. It sounded like he was holding the union members present in a union meeting to the Working Together guidelines, coming off more as an HR advocate than as a union representative advocating of members to have the ability to freely speak their minds. This same individual keeps repeating that we "need new blood." New blood is outstanding, but throwing experienced babies out with bathwater for management plants is not going to help our union.



CENSORSHIP TYPICAL OF AN AUTOCRACY: Insler loyalists, Scott K (Facebook), Beau B (Facebook), as well as allegedly threatened UAL Pilots Forum administrators, CD and AL, systematically exercised and continue to exercise unprecedented censorship on the two most popular United Pilot forums. Those most critical of Insler and the MEC are banned for obscure, often hypocritical reasons. There is conjecture that ALPA MEC attorneys threatened and Lager but they have refused to provide evidence.



SINGLEMINDED DRIVE TO POWER: Glenn Johnson, the recalled Council 5 Chairman, told a close friend not long ago that the only reason he continued to run as the Council 5 Chairman was because he had “unfinished business … to get Todd elected to ALPA National.” Johnson assumed he would be the logical choice for MEC Chairman when Insler left, or that he would follow Insler to Washington for a position at National. One must ask, as Johnson navigated the Section Six process, enabling Insler and the other MEC Officers, failing to hold them accountable or demand information that might have prevented a TUMI TA, was his personal drive, his motivations, getting in the way of his custodial responsibility to the pilots? Apparently the pilots of Council 5 think so. Even when he made the shallow and crafty move to vote against the Tumi TA (we know he would not have if his vote was needed) every political move he made was geared toward getting Insler elected to ALPA National.



How did we get the TumI TA? Imagine the power of an individual walking into the ALPA National Board of Directors Meeting, a large ballroom filled with 500 pilot representatives in suits, large screen TVs, high tech event electronics in the back propped up on platforms, dozens of ALPA staff in suits hovering the background, excitement propelled by hundreds of thousands, millions in membership dues spent – and in walks the former UAL MEC Chairman, Todd Insler holding up a four inch thick contract. His image is broadcast on three giant TV screens up front as he confidently walks past the pilot delegates standing and applauding. As Insler takes the stage LEC delegates from all the airlines go quiet. Insler is quiet for a beat to let the drama build. He smiles and says, “I brought you this without a punch thrown. This is your starting point - jump over it.” The first major to get a contract in this current cycle - a moment that would have led to dozens of those members casting votes for the former UAL MEC Chairman… now the new ALPA National President.



Insler would have had a million dollar a year job, with a pension. Johnson would likely have been the MEC Chairman or found a long term full time flight loss pay job at National, along with Insler’s pals, DH, SK, JB, and a few others …



And you and I would have been living under the TUMI TA for another ten years. Well you would have, I will be gone in three and a half.



We need to get back to regular order. We need individuals who know how it’s supposed to work to mentor those who don’t so that our union does not become permanently disfigured.