Originally Posted by
FriendlyPilot
The GK bashing needs to stop. He literally risked his career to donate one of his kidneys to a friend (not spouse, child etc) because he was a match to her. He had to miss a bunch of work and take a risk there could be complications that would end his career. It cost him pay and time but he did it. He's not a selfish person. A lot of people don't like him because they are jealous he was hired so young or because he was on the MEC and didn't politically agree with him. He's a decent guy with a lot of talent and doesn't really deserve this public bashing. I can't imagine he even cares.
GK has done a lot of positive things over his career, your example above being one of them. That said, he also made the following comments on social media and in an anti-ALPA letter to Congress that he added his signature to:
The airline industry needs experience and mentoring now more than ever. It saddens me to say it but the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l is sorely misdirected and acting out of the selfish interests of younger members in its opposition to raising the age limit.
ALPA’s position to maintain age 65 is flawed and does not represent its entire membership. It is based solely on the earnings aspirations of younger and less experienced members who are eager to replace highly experienced pilots forced to retire at age 65...Raising the age from 65 to 67 will provide immediate relief to each of these issues. Additionally, keeping highly experienced pilots on the flight deck longer will help reduce the record number of safety incidents occurring, and provide vital mentorship to the less experienced pilots.
A lifetime of positive contributions can be washed away or diminished by negative ones. In his statements above, GK is currently showing a lack of respect for those who have come behind him and are currently filling shoes that he himself once wore years ago (when he seemed fine with the mandatory retirement age). Was he "selfish" when he was young and junior for not attempting to raise the retirement age then, as he is currently calling his peers? Was he in need of a raised retirement age for mentoring his own inexperience when he was young and junior, yet "eagerly" sat silent and benefited from the existing system? Is it decent and selfless of him to be actively undermining our union for his own personal benefit?
He may otherwise be a decent and selfless guy, but the anti-union, disrespectful, obtuse, and self-serving behaviors he is currently displaying make it hard for me to have sympathy for the realities of his diminished reputation.