First, for your four points:

1. The grievance filing and prosecution is actually just beginning to turn around. The trustee of the new Local will be our current business agent, who is facilitating a lot of improvements in the area of grievances. Our former business agents were driven out of town along with the former president and legal counsel. In the past six months, our current business agent has really sorted out the mess left behind and prioritized the handling of cases. A date has been set for the 100 seat arbitration, and our business agent based a lot on getting a friendly arbitrator. For once, we have a stradegy! The necessary groundwork has been laid, and results should start to manifest by mid year or sooner, depending on the case. As for the EXCO's role in it, they were pretty much running every single facet of the union, and were easily distracted. Since the Emergency trusteeship, task delegation has improved a lot, and the new players are working hard to be defined by their own actions, not that of the EXCO.

2. Communication is horrible. Our current business agent and soon-to-be trustee is going after better communication methods. The new sheriff, plus a chance to force the issue through new bylaws may offer some hope. Secrecy has been the means by which the EXCO has maintained power. None of us are ever allowed to know enough to fairly judge the output of the EXCO, hence we have trouble justifying running against them.

3&4. As for unity, a lot of that falls on the current EXCO, no doubt. I know everyone on the outside sees things one way, but from the inside there have been some big internal battles that have been very time consuming for our union. But wholeheartedly I agree that much more ought to have been done. When the whizzing contest of SLI is done, I am sure you will find the rank and file RAH pilot is far more open and welcoming than the talking heads.

A lot if us want the EXCO gone or broken up. Elections come up this year, if I am not mistaken, so some change is possible in the near future. I hope new bylaws are more inclusive for those who want to run for office.

My hope is that we stick with this new Local until everyone is settled on property, the new contract is at least put up for a vote, and we see what we can create. The freedom to write our bylaws allows us to mimic the stronger unions without giving up our current support during negotiations. If it turns out we can't do it ourselves, then I am all for going elsewhere.

For another poster:

As for which union wins in integration, I believe there is a certain percentage of incoming pilots that must be met to force a vote on representation. However, the three "new" airlines will only come to total about 40% of the new combined group, which apparently is not enough to trigger a vote. However, many of us are open to new representation. Hopefully Midwest and Frontier pilots will be willing to participate in whatever union we have and lead us to a better place.