Originally Posted by
Sink r8
Well, if the ALPA President can't simultaneously by ALPA President and MEC Chairman of DALPA, and he's successful, then I'd say it means an orderly continuation of the MEC's strategy at Delta, with a different Chairman. It would tell me that the DALPA MEC is not to top-down body that some fear, and that the MEC is the driving force behind Moak's actions, not the other way around. It would mean that this "Constructive Engagement" is not centered around a person, but around a group of people on this MEC, and like-minded MEC's. It would tell me that we can deal with our own Section 6 without the distraction of people fear or imagined side deals, and conversations about birthday parties and the like.
If the MEC Chariman could hold both a DALPA and National position, I would be more leery of distractions, and potential conflicts, but I'm not 100% certain it couldn't work.
Personally, I think Moak is a good, effective union leader, maybe the best I've seen. But none of this is
about Moak. This is all about my kids' welfare, and my kids' welfare is tied to my wallet and my presence at home (where more is better
). It's about having an effective MEC obtaining gains, and acquitting itself of the business of the Delta pilots. Because I think they're most capable of representing my interests, and crafting an implementing effective strategies, I support this MEC. I would like their
actions to continue,
and to be adapted as the environment changes. That means our Section 6 will be a lot less friendly (ironically) than our BK discussions.
I like the idea of having a core of people that are effective and intelligent carry this startegy forward, but I don't want the process hijacked by individuals that park themselves in positions of power, and won't ever leave. I think there is a limit to Constructive Engagement, and that even if the idea has a lot of staying power, it can be corrupted after people spend so much time with Managament, that they think they
are mangement. So I think an orderly exit by Moak now would be extremely good news. It's what I've been advocating to my rep.
Currently, our entire nation is very unsettled and the "throw the bums out" attitude is prevalent everywhere, even here in our little union. If you look at the history in bankruptcy you will be hard pressed to find a labor group that fared as well as Delta did. Not only did we come out with the best contract and the highest equity/claim returns, but our pilot group and our union was unified. There is no other union that can claim that. Maybe it occurred out of one big lucky circumstance or maybe it was leadership.
The last two mergers before ours were disasters. Both Airways/America West and Atlas/Polar devolved into all out shooting wars between the two sides. They remain mired in contracts we could not even imagine. Their pilot groups are not just split but irreconcilable. In our merger, we had a contract along with a hefty stock grant, sewn up before the merger even closed and had a seniority list one month after. As I type, we have mixed crews flying virtually every type of jet (fences excluded) and as far as I know they all can work together. Look at our "issues" that we have now, single engine taxi on the A-320. How about if the two pilot groups were denying each other jumpseats on their own company airplanes? Maybe it occurred out of one big lucky circumstance or maybe it was leadership.
I am not rapping on you because I thought your post was thoughtful and accurate, I just wanted to express my thoughts without getting wrapped up in some other fight.
We should be in a much worse situation than we are right now. Even with us showing the way, UAL/CAL are already far behind us in the progress of their merger.
At some point in the future, we will have a dysfunctional MEC with a poor leader as MEC Chairman, it may not be now it may be years off. We will have balkanized into little groups where wide body pilots are against narrow body pilots, junior against senior, West Coast against East Coast. LEC reps will spend a lot of time sending out poisonous emails telling us how bad each other is, maybe even within their own councils. Every union cycles through this. At that point people will understand how hard it is to keep everyone moving in the right direction, they will appreciate the seeming machine like smoothness with which our operation runs today, they will yearn for future looking engagement rather than reactive back biting. That is when people will appreciate what Lee has done over the last 5 years, the most difficult 5 years this pilot group has ever faced. You don't always know what you've got till it's gone.