As the saying goes, "Follow the Cheese."

 

Is that an endorsement?

 

Currently, our entire nation is very unsettled and the "throw the bums out" attitude is prevalent everywhere, even here in our little union. If you look at the history in bankruptcy you will be hard pressed to find a labor group that fared as well as Delta did. Not only did we come out with the best contract and the highest equity/claim returns, but our pilot group and our union was unified. There is no other union that can claim that. Maybe it occurred out of one big lucky circumstance or maybe it was leadership.

The last two mergers before ours were disasters. Both Airways/America West and Atlas/Polar devolved into all out shooting wars between the two sides. They remain mired in contracts we could not even imagine. Their pilot groups are not just split but irreconcilable. In our merger, we had a contract along with a hefty stock grant, sewn up before the merger even closed and had a seniority list one month after. As I type, we have mixed crews flying virtually every type of jet (fences excluded) and as far as I know they all can work together. Look at our "issues" that we have now, single engine taxi on the A-320. How about if the two pilot groups were denying each other jumpseats on their own company airplanes? Maybe it occurred out of one big lucky circumstance or maybe it was leadership.

I am not rapping on you because I thought your post was thoughtful and accurate, I just wanted to express my thoughts without getting wrapped up in some other fight.

We should be in a much worse situation than we are right now. Even with us showing the way, UAL/CAL are already far behind us in the progress of their merger.

At some point in the future, we will have a dysfunctional MEC with a poor leader as MEC Chairman, it may not be now it may be years off. We will have balkanized into little groups where wide body pilots are against narrow body pilots, junior against senior, West Coast against East Coast. LEC reps will spend a lot of time sending out poisonous emails telling us how bad each other is, maybe even within their own councils. Every union cycles through this. At that point people will understand how hard it is to keep everyone moving in the right direction, they will appreciate the seeming machine like smoothness with which our operation runs today, they will yearn for future looking engagement rather than reactive back biting. That is when people will appreciate what Lee has done over the last 5 years, the most difficult 5 years this pilot group has ever faced. You don't always know what you've got till it's gone.

 

Wow the CVG guys got furloughed? If they didn't see the handwriting on the wall after what happened to the DFW refugees, I have no sympathy. There was a giant to the north with a better facility (even though I liked the B-Concourse in CVG).

 

OK... are you saying you don't think there are capable replacements for Moak in the pipeline? Are you saying our MEC is already so fractured it can't produce an effective candidate or policy?

And what about my other question: can Moak simultaneously hold both positions?

 

I understand that, I just hope the powers that be would decide that way.

I agree that it'd be tremendous power but do you think you would have to draw a line in the sand at some point and say as ALPA National we're going to do everything we can to stop scope errosion and whipsaws. Could ALPA national ever exhort that kind of pressure on individual mainline MECs? Or even set forth what they believe to be minimum pay rates or you don't get to be in ALPA?

I have to admit, I hadn't heard this. Are they trying to get on with Star? In a way, if that is it, thats a good thing. You've got to mega regionals running out there and you're (as in mainline carriers) funding them turning into real bonafide competition. Its an eye opener.

I'm sure Delta will never enter into some of the DCI contracts its in now, but I'm surprised they don't start up a whipsaw airline somewhere to shift flying and draw down RAH and SKW.

I completely agree.

For me, there are 4 things for ALPA to do: 1) Airline Safety, 2) Pay, 3) Work Rules and 4) Job Protection. I think, in a Braveheart battlefield like bravado, I would like to see minimums laid out saying this is what we expect as a minimum for airlines and not necessarily in a way that is reminiscent of UAW vs GM but more like a DAL vs DALPA thing.

For the good of the public, for the good of the airlines who try to do things right for their customers, employees and shareholders, and for our pilots, we believe that at a minimum you should have this in your training programs, this for pay, this for QOL and this for scope. Heck, name it the Moak Rules for all I care.

I sure am opining aren't I? Probably making a mess here.

So I'll quiet down, but I think we need to be ready for whats over the horizon that you and I have talked about a lot on here and that is "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome aboard SkyTeam Aliiance brought to you by [Aeroflot, or AeroMexico, or AirEuropa, AirFrance/KLM, Alitalia, China Southern, Delta Air Lines, Czech Airlines- where your Captain wants all of our FA's to come from, Kenya Airways, Korean Air, Tarom Air Transoprt, or Vietnam Airlines].

 

Well stated. Persuasive argument.

But I think we should be careful about going "all in" with Moak's constructive engagement.

Never forget who we are "engaging". They are not our friends.

The jury is still out on Moak's tenure at DALPA. "Constructive engagement" is a work in progress. Our pension is still gone and our wages are still half what they were. I'll agree Lee has been an effective leader. But to what end? Peace and harmony won't pay my mortgage.

 

In a good way, I'm not sure that is necessarily true. Especially about our union. I'd say the mood of the country is decisivly anti-rulling class at the expense of the common man's finances and well being and that could easily be our pilots.

But there is an informed electorate just like there is informed pilots and I don't think its a throw the bums out, I think its throw out those who are out of touch. And right now, I don't hear anyone say throw out the MEC Chairman.

I don't hear it when I fly the line. And I fly with 88 Captains who all made more money in the right seat then now and all seemingly were knocked out of the left seat of the 767 straight past the 737 and right into the lowly hot and sweaty maddog to fly with the likes of me. They have a lot to complain about but I don't hear them complaining about the union... right now.

Now some may disagree, thats fine, but I'm just saying what I see on my level from the bottom looking up and way up, and way way up to see Carl up there waiving back at me.

I think the pilots do, as you say, get that this isn't easy to do nor do well.

 

Is there any way to tell what size a category will be after the bid is run? I'm looking at the Resources page at the 22.D.3 report for April 2011. Is that representative of how many pilots will be in each category following the bid?

The reason I ask is my category (DTW320B) is showing 255 pilots on the April 2011 22.D.3 report. October 2010 Category list shows 254 pilots, and the projected category list (based off of the January 2010 bid) for December 2010 shows 261 pilots, but the projected category list (based off the May bid) for December 2010 only shows 206 pilots. I don't get it. Why would the category drop by roughly 20% in December and then be back up to "normal" size in April?

Where I'm going with this is, are newhires going to fill the gap between 206 on the December 2010 projection and 255 on the April 2011 requirement? What total number do they use if I put in a percentage bid?

For example if I have DTW320B at 80%, I would get it if I was #204 or better, based on a total category size of 255. But if the category is only 206 pilots total, then #204 is obviously almost at the bottom.

Any help?

 

Buzzpatt:

I missed hearing you on 550WLW this morning in Cincy. I hope the interview went well. The talk show host talked positively about the book in the segment before you were to air. Unfortunately, I had to go make sign in.

Fatty