Any new news from the meeting today? On the road, do I was unable to attend.

 

You know, they preach "it's your union stay informed", why don't they video these sessions (at least the Q&A part) and post them by invite only on youtube?

 

That's a really good idea. Hopefully someone on here can make this happen.

 

I think we asked about this years ago and were told that they cannot video tape the meetings for some legal reasons. Maybe if they publish something it is considered "official" and they do not want unvetted material made available.

 

I guess either nobody went, or there was no new news.

 

The "Memphis Joint Council Meeting" is technically not an ALPA meeting. There are no prohibitions against recording or live broadcasting of the event.

Each local council has a legal requirement to meet regularly (Constitution & By-Laws, National and MEC Policy Manuals). At FedEx in Memphis, we have 3 local councils. Those meetings are convened by Local Council Officers, they are called to order, attendance records are kept, local council business is conducted, minutes are taken, they are conducted according to rules of order, and they are concluded by majority vote. We do not allow recording or live broadcast of those proceedings, but you can read about them in the minutes that are also produced and published according to established rules.

Rather than schedule 3 separate meetings with three separate venues, speakers, caterers, etc., the Joint Council Meeting was conceived to share the cost and logistics. Having one set of speakers at one venue on one date with one caterer is more efficient, economical, and convenient. We begin "the union meeting" with the "Joint Council Meeting" and then conduct the three separate Local Council meetings.

When I was a Block Rep, we persuaded the Communications team and the MEC Officers to video tape the Joint Council Meetings with the goal of producing videos which could be shared with anyone who was unable to attend the meetings. There were a number of fears, and the resistance was not light. First, there was a fear that people would rely on videos as an excuse to not attend the meetings. Then there was a fear that something would be said and recorded that could be misinterpreted out of context and result in some legal jeapordy. Therefore, we made sure that speakers had absolute editorial control over the finished product, and we subjected the videos to intense scrutiny by the legal department. Our Communications Committee used a couple of nice video cameras, a number of volunteers, and a desktop editing suite to produce those first videos. They were a big hit, and they grew from there.

Today we've replaced the volunteers with amateur equipment with a professional production company -- Running Pony. The room is set up with blackout curtains along the sides of the room, an elaborate stage and backdrop with behind the screen video projectors, professional lighting and sound systems, as well as professional cameras and operators. None of this is for the benefit of the people in attendance -- it is done to improve the quality of the video tape. The footage is then professionally produced and made available generally as YouTube videos. For this process we pay literally thousands upon thousands of dollars -- for each meeting.

From the October Joint Council Meeting, the result was a single video of the Negotiating Committee Chairman (the "Houston, we have a problem" speech) -- a month after the fact. The speech given by the MEC Chairman to conclude the Joint Council Meeting, a speech which might be construed as motivational, which ended with all of the MEC Members and Officers, Committee Members, and other ALPA volunteers in attendance standing in front of the audience and donning their uniform hats -- that speech has not seen the light of day. Perhaps the speaker had second thoughts, thinking maybe that the scene might be construed in some way to be too confrontational.


Our goal was to make all of the proceedings of the Joint Council Meetings available for everyone to view on video, even when it was a small group of volunteers working with our own tools to produce those videos. I would hope we have that same goal when we're paying large sums of dues money to pay professionals. Unfortunately, I think we're losing bang for our buck.


That said, the process takes a finite amount of time. I would hope they are currently producing the videos which will be made available for viewing in the next few days. I'm not surprised they aren't available this soon, but I will be disappointed if they never see the light of day.


One can always hope, right?






.

 

Surprised?






.

 

Actually there were a lot of people there….

PIBS is still in company's formal proposal but both SS and SL said absolutely NO PIBS will be brought to the pilot group.

Some tough sections are being worked on. Retirement, Health Care, etc.. Most are in the company's court right now. Full contract language is being passed so there is little room for "intent".

Training (Sec 11) is a big section right now. Most guys won't care as it's only a small group but SS point was this will affect almost everyone. Company wants to move most of the Flexes back to the line - which will "add" 200-250 guys back to the flying role which will affect almost everyone's seniority. Also for guys going thru a new program, they may only see a line guy on their MV or LOE. Plus they want the CMV to be called something different and use non seniority guys to conduct those events. So a guy who has never set foot in a FedEx airplane to operate it can down you or tell you what you should be doing. And that's only a road to be like other carriers that have non seniority LCA's or FCA's…

Reserve was talked about a lot. (Most of the Q&A) That was one of the high priorities of the surveys. Fixing how the secondary lines are worked is also being discussed (you put flight #xxx as your #1 choice but a CIC has already taken it- you lose your #1 choice). Guys being denied a drop or move due to "insufficient reserves" was a big complaint. But PIBS will make it better (HA!).

We did not open vacation but the company did.

Our EVP JDP talked about some DC stuff. The Brady v ALPA court ruling specifically. He also praised our MEC and NC for how they are running things..


Again NO Pibs.

 

Thanks Pepe'

 

FDX28, Thank You