Part 2
The Censure
After several months of failed attempts to work with the National Officers in private to pursue rational and achievable objectives in a professional manner, the APA Board of Directors exhausted its options and made the collective decision to hold the National Officers accountable for their consistent refusal to follow the chain of command established in APA's governing documents.
The final straws for the APA Board were the failure of the ASAP negotiations and the alternative self-help fiasco. Both of these crises were telling examples of the depth of the dysfunction within the Hill administration. After months of fruitless posturing, your National Officers proved themselves incapable of concluding an ASAP agreement with the Flight Department. Knowing the importance of ASAP to our pilot's careers, the APA Board finally took control of those talks away from the National Officers, sent in new representatives to meet with management, and reached an agreement that met APA's objectives - in very short order.
The subsequent censure of the National Officers, which the BOD overwhelming passed by a vote of 14-4, was an attempt to bring APA's president and vice president into compliance with their Constitutional roles and duties. In hindsight, I should have immediately come out publicly with the details of why I supported the motion of censure. At the time, we kept it largely in-house, hoping the censure would send a wake-up call to the National Officers about their obligation to carry out the policies and directives of the Board of Directors (the sole governing body responsible for determining APA policy and direction).
To put it bluntly, these were just a few examples of the kind of damage which can occur when APA has highly inexperienced individuals occupying National Officer positions. In the current administration, only the president has any significant APA experience. His two top advisors, the vice president and secretary-treasurer, had done very little APA work prior to seeking office.
Unfortunately, experience, sound judgment and leadership ability cannot be legislated by the APA Board. Lacking the Constitutional authority to remove any of the National Officers, your APA Board of Directors is severely constrained in taking the actions necessary to return APA to productive functionality. Knowing they are safe from recall by the APA Board, Hill, Westbrook and Haug have continued to pursue a path of internal conflict and confrontation, which has been a consistent hallmark of Lloyd Hill's APA career. Meanwhile, AMR management is watching from the sidelines and enjoying the spectacle while careers of all APA pilots continue to suffer every day this continues.
Fortunately, there is good news. Due to the work recently completed by the Strategic Planning Committee (which is now directed solely by the Board), APA finally has a comprehensive plan for the pursuit of a new contract. Accompanying this plan is a budget designed to work within the means of the Association while providing maximum return for the membership. The National Officers will have a role to play in the strategic plan, should they decide to participate, but the plan will proceed, regardless, under the direction of the APA Board.
The journey that has taken us to this point has not been easy, and the APA Board of Directors has struggled to find workable solutions. There are certainly differences of opinion among the Board members on how to proceed, adding to the challenge of recovery. However, the APA Board is committed to delivering a restorative contract to the membership at the earliest opportunity.
What I've outlined here are just some of the obstacles and challenges confronting your APA Board of Directors. As a fellow line pilot, I am committed to full and open disclosure with all of you. I urge all APA members to pay close attention to the issues facing us all. It is important the choices you make going forward are based on facts, reason and common sense - not hearsay, emotion or partisan politics.
DFW Vice Chairman First Officer Greg Shayman
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Sounds like the pilot group is as disfunctional as AMR...