Originally Posted by
Speed is life
Well as a furloughed Midwest guy I can tell you many of us are intelligent enough to know the crooked CEO of Midwest is the reason we are out of work. I stuck it out for 13 years at Midwest because I enjoyed my job and was paid well. I passed an opportunity to join AirTran in 2003 because I knew from friends there that AirTran wanted badly to buy Midwest...and it made good sense...so I thought it was best to ride it out.
What I didn't count on, and who knows why, was the monumental greed and lack of integrity on the part of our CEO. He was more interested in getting an inflated all cash deal for himself and his cronies than selling to AirTran. He called the folks at Northwest to work the deal that came about. He knew it would mean the destruction of MidEx and the loss of thousands of jobs...and he didn't care then or now.
In my 20 years in the profession I have served two terms on an ALPA carrier MEC, been a grievance and scheduling chairman and I think ALPA is a troubled organization...a series of kingdoms that care little about anything but themselves and that has led to a loss of membership and wages for most everyone...it is a weak organization.
Having said that there is little that can be done when you have bad management and a weak contract. Yes...our negotiating committee and MEC knew there were holes in the agreement...they just didn't believe it would be an issue in the life of the contract...hindsight shows otherwise.
I have moved on to another carrier and don't much care about Tim H. and the airline he ruined anymore. Its just business in America sadly...all about greed.
Its sad to see all the pilot-to-pilot bashing I read on these message boards. Just think what might be accomplished if we all worked together to fight the erosion of this profession instead of trading insults about who works for the better airline...managements everywhere must love this dribble.
Fly safe all.
ALPA is a very troubled organization. In the time since our current President has been in office, carriers have been lost, 3 representation elections have gone down in flames, JetBlue said "no thanks" and the list of failures goes on.
Even with the apologists and head bobbers who are told what to post here the fact is the emperor has no clothes and knows it. So he sends out his minnions at the command of Bruce York to do his bidding. For those who don't know Bruce, he's the $400,000.00/ yr. senior lawyer who drives the representation and negotiating busses and decides when it's time to cram a contract down your throat. Don't like it? He sends in the $400,000.00/ yr. General Manager Jalmer Johnson; who tells your MEC and Negotiating Committee to take the deal and sell it, or your money get's cut off. Just wait til the AirTran guys find out he's starting to sandbag their negotiations. But keep sending those dues dollars!
The real fun starts when your MEC or committees dare to stand up to them. That's when Bruce starts his smear campaigns through the Representation office.
What we forget is that ALPA is not a union, it's an "association." Which means him with the most gold, makes the rules for everyone else. That's why the rules changed to give the big guys voting control over the little guys. Now there's only one really big guy left. And when he decides that he wants AirTran gone, Bruce will turn on them like he has on everyone else. Because it's not about protecting your job, it's about protecting his paycheck that you are making possible by paying your dues.
I say we stop paying dues until the senior management and elected officers take the same paycut as everyone else. Let's demand our MEC's pass resolutions to change the rules to require the elected National officers and General Manager to take a pay cut down to the level of a Regional F/O. If they want a bonus, they better get some work done on job security and pay. And stop sucking up to the DAL MEC. They're gonna run ALPA in two years anyway and get rid of all of us since we're in the way. Why put our money into their wallets?