Originally Posted by
Pinchanickled
Right on brother!
Just makes you wonder, does our fearless leader purposely try to orchestrate a never ending saga to enable his ongoing 115 hour buy out? Due to his full time buyout he's making $111,780 dollars per year! Never flies and hasn't ever stepped foot into a CRJ-900. While the rest of us average about 60-65,000 a year.
Why hasn't the union created a plan? All they do is just meet up with management to negotiate, make some requests, then reschedule another session to make more requests. It's been ongoing for years and years now.
It's clear management only looks at the 9E employee's as slaves. That's evident in the over-utilization and under-appreciation. This wont change easily. Our union has turned into a battered wife who keeps coming home to her drunk and abusive husband, thinking that he's going to change one day. Why haven't they picked a pressure point and pushed on it to get things to change? Do something for crying out loud!!! Anything!!!
Picketing is a classic pressure point.....but we cancelled it.....good job ALPA, good job!
When all these constant sick policies come out, where is the union!!!!????
We have pilots who are now scared to call in sick!! We do!! We need a statement from the union clearly explaining that the various sick policies are simply scare tactics to get you to fly sick. ALPA needs to have a clear letter stating that "no matter what, you must call in sick if you are less than 100%."
ALPA must make some serious changes and actually be a Union, rather than a dues collecting agency.
OK... we get you don't approve of the Chairman. I am not going to sit here and argue with you. If you have been keeping up (and by your previous posts you have) some have worked very hard to fix your concerns of full time buy. Away from the financial displeasure you assert, the Chairman does work every day for you and the other 1249 pilots under the PCL umbrella. The problem is that line pilots only recognize tangible success (such as a contract in this particular situation). Things going on daily on the MEC and in the Chairman's work are not seen by most because the MEC is giving 100% effort to get all the pilots something tangible, until that happens many say "nothing is being done". It's been 5.5 years and the emotional roller coaster needs to stop. This fact hits every pilot- regardless of what position they may have in the union.
The union leadership has a plan, but broadcasting it on a public board or even an email gets forwarded directly to mgmt. Yes, we have those that send every grain of info and rumor directly to mgmt. By broadcasting the plan with associated contingency ideas would greatly reduce any chances of success. You don't see the company telling the rank and file employees "the plan" either.
You mentioned picketing... I'm all for it and have been very vocal in favor, problem lies in a couple areas. 1, it would be only us for a group of all 3. 2, if this entire JCBA blows up how does it favor us to the NMB when the Pinnacle group was picketing against the company's actions when we also had to agree to extend negotiations? It's akin to ordering a steak "medium" and when it arrives "medium" saying, NO- I wanted it RARE!? The company showed a piece of their "plan" when they asked to have the DTW picketing cancelled prior to a 45 day negotiation- they didn't want the negative exposure. What did we get out of that? The ability to work towards a JCBA and sli. If the time comes where progress has completely stopped and the company retreats to their corner we all know that picketing would be very effective. Now, everyone is skeptical that this will work out, especially with all the items still on the table and only 2.5 days scheduled prior to a hard deadline set on both sides. If Dec. 2 comes and goes without a TA on the JCBA the Pinnacle pilots go back to the NMB. The MEC has no doubts that the pilots want a contract and the company knows they will need one if they expect performance to improve and having any chance of the Sli that they badly want. The holdup for any of the company's "plan" is the pinnacle pilots- a contract is the only solution to going forward. No contract at 9E would be very bad for the company, both immediate and in the future as the company wants to get more flying. The current JCBA negotiations are getting the full attention of the MEC and Negotiating committee, if that doesn't work out full attention returns to a contract for the 9E pilots under section 6 of the RLA. The NMB is watching this entire process very closely.
As far as the sick policies, some may recall that the union DID play a big role in getting a policy changed since it did go outside the bounds of the contract. The current contract allows the company to ask for a note whenever they want, and that same language is in EVERY contract- both at majors and non ALPA carriers. As far as telling pilots to call in sick, the union can't and shouldn't do that- why? Because regardless of where you work, or even what type of flying you are doing the FAA already mandates that pilots do not fly if the pilot is not 100%. If a pilot is sick and still flying the pilot is already in violation of the FAR's. If a pilot is sick, he/she is expected to call in sick- regardless of the "sick policy" says. Notice how all the policies start out saying that pilots should not fly sick? The company is simply trying to discourage the mindset of many that "a bad schedule is one sick call away from being good". If a pilot is sick, they shouldn't be flying, if a pilot is healthy there is an expectation that the pilot will be a professional and honor his/her commitments to the job.
Any union, employer, agency, or group will always have "problems" and ALPA is no different. The people who can fix the issues are the leaders and the membership. The "union" is 1250 pilots at pinnacle, and the 53,000 that make up ALPA. The leadership is still part of the union but works at the behest of the overall membership for the entire union. If you think it's bad with ALPA, what do you think the work climate would be with no protections? We wouldn't have a contract to even deal with and the company would be able to do almost anything in their favor. Look at other groups just a pinnacle and see what has happened to just their healthcare costs! Some groups had increases in costs of over 100%. I hope the $5 that the pilot's are now paying more than last year aren't putting too big of a dent in the checks. There is much to accomplish and change, but nothing will get accomplished if we are just out to chop each other at the knees. The company gets to live on easy street if the entire group isn't even working together. "United we stand, divided we fall".