Now that's a bold statement...that Fred golfs with Webb. You are joking, right? That would be like Ray Krock and Dick Cheney golfing with the president of PETA and the Sierra Club :D

Being an ALPA refuge (kind of like being the labor version of a Sudanese genocide victim in my case) I've never been impressed with the leadership, but even the most clueless room temperature IQ politico type would not golf with who many rate the anti-Christ of organized labor (see previous threads regarding Smith as Mc Cain's VP). And one thing is for sure...if the Teamsters were to organize and Fred thought ALPA offered any real help guess who he'd come after despite the havoc it would reap on the company's health. Hell...IPA has hit a brick wall trying to organize the management pilots and it hasn't even gotten nasty...yet.

At the time ('94-95), "DHL pilots" were as much a part of DHL as "UPS pilots" are now a part of UPS. They remained so until the purchase of DHL by DPWN, and subsequent spin-off of "Astar Air Cargo."

When you read posts on this or any other board, warning of the possible dilution of your overseas flying and/or spin-off of your domestic flight ops, it's not sour grapes on the author's part. Rather, it's a genuine warning to be vigilant and united against management. Given the right economic conditions, what happened to Astar and ABX could happen anywhere.

BTW, nobody I know ever thought of Kalitta as "lowly." At the time, you had a great mix of guys, including a few ex-Continentals and at least one dried-up former Delta pilot. They'd "been to the show," they knew how to fly, what was important and what was not, and were overall just a neat bunch of guys with which to jump seat. In fact, I know of at least one DHL pilot who quit to go to Kalitta, although there may have been others.

Besides, there's something viscerally satisfying about being able to settle your differences with senior management on the ramp, with your fists, then going back to flying your *** ****** airplane. It's so much more civilized (and timely) than the legal process by which the rest of our profession is burdened.

[quote=Sideshow Bob;447777]Now that's a bold statement...that Fred golfs with Webb. You are joking, right? That would be like Ray Krock and Dick Cheney golfing with the president of PETA and the Sierra Club :D

Yes, it was a joke. But the under current of it was that webb is cozy with his job. Hell there openers were what? 209 an hour!!! that's an insult to the membership. My Opinion.

Yeah, there are several stories primarily in the 80's about Connie pummeling some guy on the ramp for refusing to take an airplane (likely a DC-8 with only three running), and a couple where HE got pummeled. Believe me, the "president" of UPS Airlines, Bobby Leadpipes would LOVE to settle most disputes that way. Trust me I have no delusions that our flying (particularly overseas) is safe. I'm watching with great interest (and with no power/control whatsoever regardless of what IPA leadership may say) what happens when we move from CRK to Shenzen in a couple of years. I could easily see some Chinese carrier replace much of our intra-Asia flying and when we wave our vaunted (and expensive to us in negotiations) scope clause, they'll tell us to call their legal department full of on-retainer sharks with our sob story. At the end of the day, we're all in the same soup, just different vegetables. Our main opponent are American born and raised gangsters/thugs and yours want to invade Poland.:D

Just to throw something out there, but all of those cases pertained to a different company, FedEx Ground. Formerly Roadway Package System (RPS). they've been stealing volume from FedEx Express since FedEx Corp bought them! ;)

You're all over the map. Non-union contractors should be employees, employees should be union, FDX ALPA should stick their nose into court cases that have nothing to do with them. Give it a rest. FDX ALPA supports the right of all FedEx Express employees to unionize, should they wish. Hysterical denials doesn't change anything.

Don't know who your "buddies" but I have not met met anyone with an attitude like that unless you are referring to the group we call "nonmembers". You know - the ones that enjoy all the benefits of having representation but are too cheap (more money for them) to pay their fare share! :mad:

I have 10 pilot buddies at UPS and 9 of them admit (after a few beers) that they wish management would take all benefits away from all employees that aren't pilots and pay them minimum wage, make them live in company housing at exorbitant prices and shop at the company store! "I load 14 jets and what do I get, another day older and deeper in debt"! (sung with a very deep voice) All so they can have a bigger "piece of the pie!"

(disclaimer: none of this is true but since it doesn't stop Commando's cow chip slinging, I thought I'd jump in too! Just make up something about a different airline, attribute it to several unnamed "buddies" and let your imagination be your guide.!)

Did you hear the one about UPS putting saltpeter on the pilot's catering? Hey this is fun!

Actually I have to put so much hot sauce on it to make it remotely edible that I wouldn't notice if they did. Good thing for the HKG pharmacies to offset the saltpeter. :D

On the subject of catering, who does yours in ANC? ASI tries hard, but reheated fried chicken?

Holy crap!!!!! And I mean it... Is that why I have to run for the lav 10 minutes after I consume that stuff?