Originally Posted by
Normann
Good discussion about the JRM and move up in reference to unity. However the MEC should have looked into the 150% issue much deeper before throwing it away. It was one thing that the argument against 150% pay in relation to hiring was completely wrong, but on top of that they have underestimated the amount of people that were affected.
Right now there is a significant crowd out there that feels they have been simply written out of the contract in favor of those who do not care for extra work. It is hard to prove them wrong. We were ALL ready to vote NO to keep the 4 days off, even though not all of us are commuters. But apparently the commuters, and QOL folks just could not understand that there are some out there that like to work extra. And we are not talking about a handful of pilots on speed dials. Take a look at the recent vote. The current MEC was barely able to hang on to the CA rep position. Their luck was that the runner up was not exactly the most popular CA either. Had it been a different candidate they would have lost all positions. The division in unity is clear. Why is that if we only talk about a handful of pilots? We even labeled them "guys that want their individual contract".
If the MEC wants 100% unity they must take care of each large group instead of trading one for the other. Commuters, QOL guys, and also OT guys. All of them. All those are large groups. This clearly did not happen in contract 2010. The group that is interested in extra work was labelled as a fraction of the total. Clearly wrong.
Right now we are hiring and planning to do so. All furloughs are back even the ones that did not want to be back just yet. Nobody is hurt by the OT players. Nobody except the company itself. But the game will be over sometime next year. They will not continue to pay 200% (in most cases even 300% if you consider the resulting FAR drops) indefinitely. The company will shut this down. It is no coincidence that Monohan got fired. Someone crunching the numbers did not like the money spent on JRM and move up. Plain as that.
And a final thought. Compliance is the highest with any law when the public respects the governing entity. Many feel they have been left behind, and as a result they revolt. I completely understand them. I am paying ALPA to increase my QOL be that pay or time off. I do not pay ALPA to police me as long I am not hurting other members. Just pathetic.
In general I agree. Unfortunately, most of the membership doesn't care about the nuances you mention. They only want to ensure that they are individually protected. If the majority voted group issues, Frank would never have been re-elected. He holds the majority roll call vote and is therefore majority responsible for the decisions the MEC made over the last three years. .......and a majority voted to keep him in power. The obvious conclusion is that you, and I, are wrong. The MEC is NOT underestimating the number of people affected. They appear to have correctly estimated the exact number of supporters they need to maintain power.
Please explain the "the Captain that lost was not the most popular Captain" comment. How many FO's put me on a no fly list? The bigger question would be, why didn't someone electable decide to run against Frank?
FWIW, I only ran when NO other remotely viable candidate agreed to run. My sin was having served as the MEC Chair for a MEC that went from extremely popular to extremely unpopular. Knowing that - I am pretty proud to have gotten the 49% vote that I received.
Finally, to those reading this and looking for info about Spirit, don't come here expecting to find a serious union. Most of our members don't even understand that the MEC is made up of LEC reps and that the MEC Chairman works for the MEC. And they don't appear to care.