Denny Crane

Just some eye candy.....

buzzpat

Check out the latest DALPA email. They're gonna fire up the DPN and survey all pilots. Take the time to take the call!

Sink r8

I assume you see that as a problem. Just out of curiosity, do you see that as problem a) because you don't think Moak is effective, or b) no ALPA President is worth that much, no matter how effective he/she is?

I've always thought that we were pretty silly to argue that our executives and union officers (at that level) should not be well compensated, as long as it's commensurate to their performance. For example Mullin deserved nothing but a pink slip. On the other hand, RA does a good job, and I'm not concerned that his salary is out of proportion to the job. I also don't spend much time worrying about Cortelyou, Bastian, and guys like that. I'll sidestep the discussion about FPL, which I don't understand much, except to say that also should be relative to the performance of the individual. Some don't deserve any, some are worth their weight in gold.

What I am concerned about is that I also get compensated in accordance to my contribution to the company. I want Delta to have well-compensated executives, and I expect ALPA's President to have a comfortable income. That level of responsibility should be paid well enough that it's not like charity to accept the position. I don't even believe that the president of a 50,000+ member union needs to be paid as much as the highest paying Captain. As long as the proportion between the two is reasonable, I can live with it. I see the CEO job as being good for up to about 25 times the average salary, and I can live with a union president getting, say 5X the average pilot's salary.

I know this is anathema to most people, and I'll probably get crucified for this post, but I'm pretty sure that every time we talk about who else needs to be paid less, we start down a pathetic vindictive path, one that invariably sees us at the bottom of the raw deal.

I want to talk about getting paid well. I don't mind having a debate about Moak being... woerth 500K. I know Prater wasn't worth a dime, and the scumbag before not a nickel. I just don't think 500K for that position is weird, even if it is my money. That person operates in Washington, where money sloshes around all over the place. I want to attract ambitious and smart people to the job, and I expect they're going to get something for being there. It can be our hard-earned money, or it can be easier money dispensed by the lobbyists.

Check Essential

The really expensive ones that come to mind are Duke/Spellacy, the UAL notes case and now TWA. ALPA had to sell its HQ building to pay off Spellacy. The UAL notes case cost mega-millions even after our "off-shore insurance" paid out and TWA ...... yea yea I know. It ain't over. No money yet. yada yada. I smell a settlement coming.

The one that really ticks me off is the settlement with the RJDC. Those pinheads didn't deserve a dime and they certainly didn't deserve a pre-signing chop on Section 1 of our contract.

My point is that ALPA National is a piggy bank for Cohen, Weiss and Simon and all their spin-offs and former partners turned consultants. Look at that DOL payee report. Its insane how much we pay those people every month. And that's on top of our in-house lawyers.

And after all that, they can't even write an enforcable scope clause.

The machine in Herndon costs way too much. It is a typical Washington bureaucracy run amok and it needs to be brought under control.

Just my opinion.

slowplay

So out of the 4 that you mentioned ALPA settled on 2, won 1 and 1 is still in the courts.

The RJDC doesn't have a pre-signing chop. If that's what ticks you off then you need to reread the settlement and the change to the admin manual.

If what you allege is true, why would ALPA settle the cases above? Wouldn't CWS profit more if they litigated?

Can you explain why ALPA felt it more prudent to settle those cases rather than litigate? Was there a trail of e-mails in the UAL case that showed pilots might not have listened to the advice they were given?


Now we come to the meat of your post. You don't like ALPA Intl, so you try to pin "blame" on the organization and its legal advisors. Is that what they taught you in law school?

Look, our union gets sued all the time. Certain attorneys have made a living suing ALPA. But even if you got your way and dispensed with ALPA, you'd have the same problem at your little local union. USAPA is broke over legal bills. APA had a crushing judgement placed against them. The Teamsters have never had any legal problems....

What's your fix? It should start with reforming our legal system, imo.

acl65pilot

Yes, you should. Tell them how you feel.

Rogue24

Was "standing up" the DPN approved by the Reps?

Agreed! If they are going to spend the money, you should give them the feedback. I would like to see a survey on the Flight Time Duty Time items, not calling like this. Curious if this calling will be used to get the data for that LOA.

Purple Drank

Well, acl65pilot, we told them how we felt a couple months back--and those results were duly ignored and buried.

**cue DALPA waterboy to indignantly wail that they haven't released the results, so how can we know what the results were??

So... they're admitting their administration is completely non-transparent.

Why waste our dues money and time on another round of eyewash? Why would we expect this round of surveys to be treated and acted upon any differently than the last one?

shiznit

Apparently 68% of the Delta Pilots didn't think their input was ignored and buried.....

Obviously you're not in the near super-majority of Delta Pilots who felt this way.

BTW, unions that "waste our dues money" don't usually find a way to provide $6-7 MILLION in refunds of said dues for their members.......

acl65pilot

I do not know know why. If they are calling might as well give input. Rogue brings up a good point though; Was this initiated by the Reps or the admin? Does it have rep approval or were they recently advised that this would be happening?

I do know that the policy manual allows the expenditure if it is not over 25% of the committees quarterly budget. Buying trips costs lots of money if that is how they will staff dpn.