And now for the rest of the story......
 

The Fork in the Road

Fellow Pilots of Council 108,

I am writing you today to discuss the very difficult place we find ourselves. We have arrived at a fork in the road and must choose one of two paths in which to go down. It would be nice if we could split the difference, but it appears that option has been taken from us.

Yesterday, I received a letter that was sent out to only a select number of pilots in Council 108. Tim O’Malley, Jerry Timmerman, Don Wykoff, and Rich Harwood signed the letter. In a writing style similar to that of Buzz Hazzard, it tries to paint the picture that I am a radical, one who only votes “No,” and one who prefers a strategy of “torches and pitchforks.” It suggests that I want to abandon constructive engagement in favor of taking a hard line. I went back and reread my perspectives to the council. I am at a loss for how anyone could come to these conclusions unless they had an underhanded motive to remove me as your representative for their political gain.

The letter paints a very rosy picture of the recall. It tries to show any reasonable MEC member as having no other option than to vote for the recall of Kingsley Roberts, despite the fact that the initial vote was virtually tied at 10-9. They also fail to paint the behind the scenes activity that occurred which was akin to a conspiracy. The letter also fails to recognize the fact that when Tim O’Malley left office, the DPA had over 5,000 members, a failure of O’Malley’s leadership, not Roberts’.

Recognize that much of what I am about to communicate is my opinion based on my observations being a member of the MEC. The recall efforts began the day Kingsley Roberts won the election for MEC Chairman. The O’Malley supporters gathered together to make sure Robert Hazzard (Buzz) got elected in Council 108. They did not fight me as they thought I was one of them since I performed committee work and got very favorable reviews from the Committee Chairman I worked under. In the first hour of the first meeting of this new MEC, Buzz and Randy Worrall of council 81 called for an Executive Session. While I can’t discuss the content of that session, it was an attempt to build the case to recall King but ultimately failed. There was much discussion in the hospitality suite at the Seattle meeting about recalling King, but it failed to launch as well.

In September Buzz invited my wife, our son, and me over to his home to watch a baseball game. The other invitees were Tim O’Malley, Brenier Fries, Rich Harwood, Don Wykoff and their wives. Tim and Bren were unable to attend, but Rich and Don were there. I was suspicious going into this social event as all of these men had tried to sway my opinion and lean on me in the past. My suspicions were**confirmed as I quickly realized this social evening was a way for them to feel me out for what they had in mind; recalling Kingsley.

The first week in October, Buzz and his team started the process of recalling King. My own independent research of the matter showed me quite clearly that this was a well-organized and choreographed attack on Kingsley Roberts. It was clear that the team was speaking from the same talking points as they were saying the exact same things, word for word. Buzz hosted a conference call, referred to by some as clandestine, made up of those who had committed to the recall and those he was trying to get on board. I was the latter. It was quite an eye opening look at how this group works, or perhaps schemes, to achieve their goals. Despite this, I tried to work with other MEC members and King to stop the recall and get back to work. This effort failed. Once the letters went in calling for the recalls, Buzz’s co-conspirators started calling and emailing me. They yelled, threw insults, and Jerry Timmerman, Buzz’s Vice-Chairman on the Communications Committee, threatened me with recall two days before the recall meeting.

When the recall meeting started, I asked a few simple questions that seemed to be non-threatening. My point was to establish a baseline of whether we were going to get the truth or lies. Unfortunately, I was hearing statements I knew to be lies. The baseline was set for what would be a two day kangaroo court, in which nobody swore an oath to tell the truth. The co-conspirators in the MEC asked many a slanted question of the witnesses. Randy Worrell, Armando Gomez, Boyd Kelly, Brian Shinnick, and Buzz Hazzard participated in questioning of many while repeatedly denying King the chance to tell his side of the story or defend his actions. At the end of the 11 hours, I gave him that chance but by then the damage was done.

Earlier I mentioned the fork in the road. Our entire pilot group is facing this fork. We need to make the decision whether we are going to continue going down the path of electing a group that uses Chicago- style political tactics while ignoring a very large segment of the pilot group, or if we are going to get back to the original design of bottom up and membership-led representation. We also need reps who want to listen to our pilot group. Buzz has told me many times that he thinks lounge visits are a waste of time and even fought Kingsley Roberts when he introduced the program. I cherish the lounge visits and the opportunity to talk one on one and listen to your concerns. Perhaps Buzz knows better.

Finally, the letter forwarded to me yesterday suggested writing in John Wolf. I like John and thank him for stepping up to the plate. Two days prior to our October LEC meeting, Tony Gerst expressed he was willing to serve, but didn’t really want to. Buzz reached out to John and asked him if he would run for that position. He said yes. I nominated him along with many others. I have no hard feelings toward John for the write in suggestion yesterday. I think that he is being used as a pawn to snuff out the independent thought that I offer. They will push him to follow orders and vote as they say or they will find a way to push him out as they are trying with me. I see this as a dastardly act toward John.

In summary, the choice is yours. Do you want independent reps that vote according to your direction as members, or do you want reps that will do what the old regime wants and bully others to fall in line? I seek independent thought. I voted for Buzz in the last election. After seeing how he operates, I no longer support him as our representative. Silas Hart is not running in this election, but when asked has said that he is willing to serve if our council elects him via write in. I have written Silas in and fully endorse him for Captain Rep. His ALPA number is 0614461.

Thanks for your attention and I ask for your vote. A vote for Ryan Schnitzler is a vote for independence, strength, and loyalty to the membership, not a regime. I have copied yesterday’s letter for your own analysis.

Ryan

C'mon Guys,

His story sounds fishy, but the least we can do is give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though I am skeptical he has not been proven guilty or convicted of anything yet - has he?

Scoop

Article: An off-duty Delta Airlines pilot has been charged with fondling a 14-year-old girl seated next to him on a flight, but he contends he was sleeping at the time, authorities said on Wednesday.

Yup, the old "I was definitely asleep when I molested that girl" defense. How predictable.

I bet he gets off. And by that... I mean he beats that thing.

Odd how the article doesn't mention that Delta traded this pilot to Jerry Atkin back in 2005 for $425 million and some gates in ATL.

I have been asked to come and respond to this post by several pilots who emailed me tonight after seeing this "campaign" email posted here.

I strongly believe that council communications are written directly to the pilots in the council by their reps and do not always translate to other bases - or - in other words, I don't comment on other bases communications because they weren't written to me.

I must make an exception when a paid election campaign email accuses me of doing something and is distributed to an entire pilot base.

As with earlier requests to participate full time here on APC, I am available via my phone and email in the database and choose not to participate full time here due to the liability issues here with the existing court injunctions etc...but will take the time to correct this.

You all know I love a good debate as much as anyone, but I don't want to be the bad guy that is going to be required by a judge to tell you to stop if someone crossed the line on here, anonymous or not...it's not my job to police you.

I have asked Ryan to retract his inclusion of my name in his election campaign email about me because it is not true.

I will not speak to the rest of his email but only the portion as it pertains to me.

For those pilots who were at the meeting and are here on APC, they should all be able to verify that I spoke early in the day (allowing ample response time), was respectful to all involved, and allowed everyone involved time to speak and respond and even apologized on the PA system to the MEC, the MEC Chairman himself and to the pilots sitting in the back of the room for taking more time than I had planned on my question and yielded my time back to the Chairman to do with as he saw fit as he was in charge of the meeting.

I spoke with as many of the pilots in the back of the room as possible on both days during the breaks as the meeting went on as they filtered in and out.

I know there are many opinions about the event and if you'd like to discuss anything else moving forward, you have my contact info, but the above statement as it relates to me is simply not true.

Getting back to the OP#1, I do believe there is some actual hiring going on at Delta...

I don't even think he was arrested.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...AndTheGimp.jpg


Oh, maybe he was arrested after all.

Yup. Thinking the same thing myself.

I'd love to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but I'm having a hard time believing he fell asleep and his hands somehow made their way towards this girl's private area.

I'm sorry Boomer, but you've exceeded the maximum allowable puns in one non-consecutive post.

As punishment you must go read the last 10 pages on the DPA while listening to Miley Cyrus's latest album.

Can I watch Miley's bedroom video 10 times while listening to Rush?

That's why the meetings should be video taped or have transcripts of the proceedings. IMHO

Yeah, and by management's definition, he was a mainline Delta pilot. Right, Ed? Remember, "our customers prefer riding on mainline aircraft, those with 70 seats or more." Love when their verbal trickery comes back to bite them.