Originally Posted by
flapsfail
I'm not sitting here with me arms crossed saying you, higney, aren't doing what you can or aren't putting the effort out. My biggest complaint is this; I, we, may be the union. I can pick up my phone and call/text/email/or whatever to the lec reps and if I had/have a personal work issue or have something minor I would most certainly do that and do. However we are dealing with some major issues: contract, attendance policy, aquisition of another airline ect and I feel the union should be addressing us, not individulal pilots calling the local reps to see what's going on. More specifically I feel the mec should be addressing us more and advising. Note....these are some major issues and they all can't be solved in one day and I understand some of these things take some sort of time. After listening to the conference call a week ago and the "plan" (lack there of) is bull. I feel we need to stop being so political and do what needs to be done, minus a work action. There were a couple of guys asking the chairman, whats next and what plan do you have? All I heard was a lot of "ums" and we are going to talk and try to do some informal picketing. Why hasn't this been going on anyway? It's time for the leaders to step up and address this group with a serious game plan.
The mec seems to have no idea and it is showing. Meanwhile the company can change a policy, redefine a sick event, violate this and that and there is nothing coming from the top. That is my problem...
Hey, I agree with the lack of leadership. We need action and we need it now. That's not to say illegal job actions, it's not to tell everyone "hey, be safe"- it just doesn't work right now when folks see 200% for open time and are in fear of what happens if they call in sick. I think we have had people using the mindset of "A bad schedule is 1 sick call away from being great" and pilots have used sick calls for "personal days". I won't blame the pilots- it's a mix of PBS, a lack of pilots (high time lines), and the apparent inability for schedulers to take a pilot's drop/swap/trade requests and put effort into making things happen. In the end, everyone comes to work and "does their job" but doesn't go any farther by adding some personal touch. Unfortunately morale is in the toilet, everyone is simply covering their tail instead of trying to work together, and the results are anger and hostility to everyone from everyone.
As far as leadership- something must be done. Picketing and family awareness events historically don't get much turnout but there are many ideas being thrown around. In the next MEC meeting we will be working to deal with the MEC's of the other 2 carriers, our contract, and our strategic plan with action going forward. There are legal lines to cross which helps us, and the company wants dual qual- which they can't have until we have a contract. I would also expect a very short ICE period at this point with the purchase after it is apparent the healthcare roadblock was backloaded with a carrier purchase.
There are lots of pilots who are angry, we know we need action. I'm sure you have seen the chairman's update by now and it's unfortunate that the company still hasn't told us what the heck they want to do. Expect info to start coming in the next couple weeks as legal, MEC's, and the company have time to have their meetings and make strategic plans.