Maybe there is a computer expert out there that can make it very easy. Maybe DPA could provide a template like the ones that get sent to Washington DC. They could take credit for the "form letter"

You click on your council; surf through a drop down menu of issues (pay restoration, scope, JV, etc); fill out your contact info; edit or don't edit the content of a canned, but well-written letter; click send. Automatically sends to your reps and gives you a confirmation code. Print out the confirmation codes and start wall-papering the crew room! Seems like an idea to wake up the lazy pilot group, while indirectly promoting DPA and sending another shot across the bow of DALPA's ship.

It has to be as easy as posting on APC!

 

Timbo;

Of course I have spoken to my reps. Good guys BTW! I have emailed ref scope and RAH. I have emailed about gojets. I have emailed about DALPA/ALPA failings (IMO). I spoke with them day before yesterday.

I'm not lazy or apathetic. Unfortunately what I am is someone who has seen enough to not really trust anymore. I mean stuff like the survey which was overall great, but c'mon the legal speak was so thick that if you were up on the issues, 750 characters was just spent trying to undo the corner that the legal speak painted you into in the first place.

 

Nope, that's much too easy, the Reps know it's too easy, and it would have zero effect on swaying a LEC rep, just like all those letters have zero effect on the politicians in DC. Do you really think they read any of them?

You need to be in their faces, face to face, 100 pilots in the room screaming for restoration is what is needed.

Until that happens, well, it's not going to happen, ever, so get used to the MEC setting a low bar and then failing to get over it.

But do any of you think it will be any different with a different bunch of Leaders? DPA will still have the same (lazy) pilot group to deal with.

Like my Dad says, you can't make a horse out of horse schiet...

So it is what it is. I've been going to LEC meetings and screaming about it since I got hired, but nothing ever changes. The MEC answer is always, "Well the rest of the pilots are ok with it..."

I'm over it. You DPA guys can pick up the flag and charge the hill...just don't be surprised when you look back and nobody's following you.

 

Side Question:

Anyone recommend a doc in SLC to renew my medical?

Preferably an old guy who can't see, asks me how I feel and gives me a first class based on me telling him I feel great.

 

What my reps tell me is, we (the 30% of us who care) are "In the Minority". They speak of the "Silent Majority", ie. the 70% who won't put down their golf clubs for an afternoon to attend a LEC meeting.

They figure they pay the LEC guys to "Take care of it" so what ever they come up with must be "The best deal they could do..." and they then vote Yes, with no knowledge of what they are voting for!

When I ask them WHY would you vote YES to that??! They say, "Well...the MEC told me to!"

When I ask the MEC guys why they voted YES to any crappy T/A, they say, "Well, the pilots didn't show up at the meetings in any numbers strong enough to make us feel confident in a job action."

And you know the company usually has a guy or two in there to monitor attendance and report back on the "mood of the pilots", right? Well if nobody shows up, I guess there is no problem, right?

 

If this were true, we wouldn't have the DPA movement. The problem is that many of us explicitly do not trust the MEC to do what we ask. We expect them to do what they want, then hide behind survey results that we never get to see.

But we're not talking about giving anything up. We're talking about achieving an industry LEADING contract. How strongly do you support that?

Carl

 

The A380 just isn't good looking. It is like a comparison between


and they want us to strengthen the ramp so they can park this

 

Good economic analysis of some of the seemingly "nuts" route decisions being made by marketing here and at other airlines:

Aviation Data And Insights From Boyd Group International

Summation: It is all about the marketing alliance.

What ACL has been saying about "SkyTeam Airlines" is on point.

 

I have been saying this for so long it is not even funny. I wish they did just that.

 

Timbo;

I know you commute, but you and Tsquare are fortunate to also have MEC roadshows that go to MCO - which is reasonably close to where you live.

I am also a commuter. No roadshows come near me. I only go to the meetings when it works with my schedule. Basically (from memory) 60% of the pilot group commutes by air to work. Meeting attendance is a poor indicator of sentiment.

IMO, and I agree with you, the pilot group, the silent majority, is apathetic and uneducated. IMO this is why the MEC acts the way it does...a few of us throw stones thru their windows, but the larger group doesnt seem to care. (Just watch, this is the paragraph the apologist will latch onto and try to discredit...)

The issue I have with DALPA is pilot education and I ask myself "why is DALPA spinning the company viewpoint rather than educating the pilot group on their range of options?" The answer I come up with is that DALPA likes an apathetic and uneducated populous. For the life of me I dont know why. I have to assume reps ran for office because they were fed up. I have to assume that all of DALPA wants a super contract because who doesnt want more money?

Then we get the contract comparison. Glossy, expensive to produce, real nice quality magazine...one of the lamest, expectation managing pieces of dung I have ever seen DALPA produce. Management might have printed a more upbeat document...forget SWA, forget AF/KLM, forget whatever you expected to find from your union and collective bargaining agent.

The contract survey was similar. For me, maybe the biggest omission was the turboprop scope piece. My union gently bending me over the table and ...well you know the rest. I have said before and I'll say again, turboprops are the future ... period! Domestic, international, ultra long haul. Fuel is expensive and mr. fusion is a pipe dream.

I dont know why I am ranting, all y'all know this stuff. Conflict of interest is real. Crew pass/ KCM ...someday. Emirates will kill everybody because ALPA wont fight for a contract that attracts US pilots back from them.