2cylinderdriver

And your dues are TAX Deductible ! We need Unity, we have about 2 years to get this thing back on the rails. We will have plenty of issues in the next 18 months to show our unity. Get involved, even if it is only emailing your block rep and showing up at meetings. Do something.

Toccata

Actually, it may be worth reading about 'Unionism' in general, among other industries. There seems a lot more failures, than successes in Unions protecting their respective industry (I think of all my classmates who choose those convenient Guide Lamp/Delco Remy UAW jobs, driving that new A-plan Corvette right out of High School......).

We don't want to go down that path, I believe. Open skies, cabatage, 'xxx' freedom rights......those words are floating around alot in Washington these days. In other industries, the policy names (NAFTA comes to mind) may have been different, but the affect on the US union worker is all to real. How they are handled may be more important to our collective futures than any age change.

I will not be suprised if I see $50 K/year foreign airlines/pilots flying passengers intra-US at some point.

Falconjet

Respectfully Don, I don't think you are listening to what the guys who you say are complaining are actually saying. Most of us gladly pay the dues. All we would like is for the union to stop working against us and listening to what our opinions are and maybe protecting the interests of the junior half of the seniority list as they do the top. That is what the complaints are about, its not whining about paying dues.

A lot of you guys just hear the complaining and then tune out. Fair enough. We've been told to write our reps and go to the meetings and get involved. Many of us have done that. We've been not so politely told to shut up and wait our turn. A lot of us feel that we should be treated better by the union officials that purport to represent EVERYBODY on the seniority list and that is not happening right now.

To answer your question, yes sometimes I think we would be just as well off without the union because frankly right now things couldn't go much worse than they are with the union. Understand that this is hyperbole and frustration coming out, but the point is there shouldn't be any doubt that we'd be better off with the union. Some of us would just like to see the union actually get out ahead of any issue and get it together before the next negotiations start up.

FJ

Busboy

You guys are hilarious.

It amazes me that you have the audacity to whine about paying dues, ALPA, MEC leaders, etc., When, in the last year we have had probably the most contentuous events that've ever occured at FDX. Yet, when given the opportunity to vote(the most important right you have) in the recent LEC 22 election...Only 337 voted, out of 1196 elegible voters. Are you kiddding me?

That's a 28.2% turnout. When others tell you to get involved...The least you could do, is vote.

Sorry for the interuption. Now, back to your ceaseless whining.

Falconjet

Bus: Does it ever occur to you that maybe the guys on here doing the complaining ARE voting and ARE involved? You think the guys who take the time to vent their concerns on here are the ones who aren't voting? Really?

Just telling the junior guys to shut up and color (another form of the you need to vote and get involved, until then your opinion doesn't matter) isn't going to make any of the problems go away either. In fact, they will continue to get worse.

FJ

Canyonman

We have to be the most dysfunctional pilot group in airline history. First no union, then Tiger merger p***ing contest (purple vs silver), then ALPA (which ask the pilots to not fly on their days off in 12/95, but we could not resist the 200%), then kick out ALPA and insert FPA with PC (who offered a great pay raise, but forgot to tell us to bend over on trip rig among other things. "Can you spell no reach around"), then FPA "take 2" with MW as pres. which actually brought unity, but no experience in negotiating (Black Thursday) and now back to ALPA (and again no courtesy with a reach around with the optimizer, LOA and age 65, bla,bla,bla). Forget anything? Priceless!!

I find it ironic that when I was hired 12yrs ago most senior pilots I flew with wanted nothing to do with ALPA or a union and now the junior pilots are disenfranchised with ALPA. Go figure. Company negotiators must be loving it!!

But I can't blame the junior pilots. I say keep raising the BS flag and maybe the word will get out and more pilots will vote on the issues etc..( I know naive). FJ is right. Senior union leaders have not worked well with junior pilots who have volunteered and voiced their opinions. I personally know two pilots from my new hire class that worked on the negotiating team with BC and have both resigned.

I still would rather keep ALPA on board vise independent. If anything for the lawyer protection from the company. God forbid I have an aircraft incident. My 2 cents. I feel better now.

Busboy

Assuming that you do vote, email or phone your block rep, congressman and senators...Well done.

You should spend some time canvassing your contemporaries and see if you can get them to do the same. That's how change will come about. Until then, it appears that the majority of junior guys, either don't agree with your positions. Or, just don't care enough about it, to even vote.

Changing the name of our union, is not going to make difference.

And, things can and would be much worse without a union.

dckozak

I would whole heartily agree FDX ALPA leadership has failed to effectively communicate or convince the membership of why it has taken some positions. As far as the manner of how the leadership has addressed individuals complaints/opposition to the leadership's direction (LOA and age 65 in particular) I could see where DW, could seems disagreeable. I knew DW before he was "inside" and based on my observation at the time, I feel Dave's personalty is better suited to guerrilla warfare rather than (as he is obliged to be) a diplomat

I think its disingenuous to believe that the leadership doesn't have the best interests of all the FedEx pilots at heart. There are always gong to be some differences is opinion between junior and senior, older and younger, and other special interests. Some issues have clearly put ALPA in a no win position for which it had no interest in taking a central position. Age 60 was a political issue which forced ALPA to do what (in the leaderships opinion, both local and national), it had to do to be both fair and mitigate damage to the membership. The majority of pilots didn't want it, but blaming ALPA for it is not only wrong but misguided. The LOA, on the other hand, well I think the leadership should have polled the membership about what it thought was fair rather than buy into the "take it over leave it" position the company took. Clearly BC saw the glass half full when many saw it half empty.

If the pilots of FedEx feel their leadership is unresponsive, insensitive, or misguided in its approach to dealing with FedEx and national issues it should speak up and hold them accountable to the people they represent. Just be prepared to do more than whine and complain to get the kind of action out of your union that 2% of your pay should buy.

Ranger

Every pilot on the property needs to tell themselves that several times a day. Many of us were here for the "give us a year" debacle. I still have the leftovers from my tube of Preparation H somewhere in the medicine cabinet.

a300fr8dog

I think those of us posting on here, aka "the lunatic fringe", are some of the most engaged pilots of our group, IMHO. Not saying we're any better, or have all the answers. I can't tell you how many times I've brought up a debated issue off of APC, only to have my cohort say he hadn't even thought of it. I know we speculate and kick it around here. But, kicking it around is good for all of us, including the MEC.