For what it’s worth, I’m fully aware that ranting on here won’t fix anything...but sometimes you gotta rant nonetheless.

 

The bottom line is, ALPA is always engaging management. There are always things going on behind the scenes. ALPA is always working to secure gains for the pilot group. But it makes things extremely difficult when management is completely unwilling to play ball. And they have absolutely no incentive to play ball right now. OAL attrition is minimal and hiring is through the roof. I, like many, am extremely frustrated that we cannot get any improvements as a pilot group. But how in the world is ALPA supposed to be able to negotiate with a management team that has absolutely zero interest in negotiating? It takes two to tango. I'm ****ed and frustrated, but I have to ask myself, what could I do to change things that our elected leadership isn't already doing? And I'd ask anyone else who is blaming ALPA for not getting us all of these gains that we all want, how exactly do you suggest we go about getting these things? Anyone who thinks that ALPA is just sitting around doing nothing, I'd suggest reaching out to your MEC reps and/or the MEC officers and have them give you an idea as to what is going on behind the scenes. We all want improvements, we're on the same team. Place the blame on management, who is unwilling to grant any significant gains to this pilot group. Now, I will say that the communication between the ALPA leadership and this pilot group is sub par. They are doing a poor job at communicating, well, anything really. I think the lack of communication conveys the notion that nothing is being done. There needs to be communication as to the current state of affairs, the goals going forward, a general update on whether or not active negotiations are taking place in hopes of accomplishing something, etc....Obviously, there are certain sensitive things that shouldn't be shared in the interest to negotiations, but just a general update from time to time is imperative. I think us all being left in the dark is what frustrates us all. I personally know things are being worked on behind the scenes after reaching out to leadership. But Joe Pilot that has made no effort to reach out has no clue that anything is happening right now since there is no communication from ALPA stating otherwise. This has to change.

 

It's not that the group does not understand that management has to be willing to give us stuff, what frustrates this group is Sam's and the lec's unwillingness to stand up to management and make things uncomfortable. Our LEC won't rock the boat because they want to flow soon(don't take a position, if your not willing to do what it takes). Every small gain we have got from this company in the last 2-3 years has been because the company brought it to the union, not the other way around. When the union comes up with an idea and the company is willing to hear it, we end up with a reserve LOA that had to be withdrawn because we laughed at it. Even if endeavor had not put out their LOA we would still have laughed our LOA away. That's why the union was doing the crew room meets lately, and all they wanted to hear from us, was, what do you want fixed for reserve. I am pretty sure they can't be that out of touch, we have been saying the same things for years(I am not on reserve, so screw it, make reserve worse, but give us raises!!).

 

I think you hit all the points pretty accurately! There is SOOOO MUCH going on behind the scenes between the company and ALPA every single day. I used to think that our ALPA representation was lacking, until I spent 2 days in the Euless office helping them work on something. Our full time reps are usually in there for 10+ hours a day. Not sitting around either, but feverishly working on something or another.
Here's the problem(s); As you said, until the company has a good reason to want to come to the negotiation table with us, they will simply play hard ball any time we want something. Right now they have no good reason. We are at a disadvantage in that the company holds the majority of the cards (After all, they are in the business of running an airline, not in the business of employing random pilots / workers). With a contract in place, and 90+ new hires showing up each month, they have no reasonable reason to negotiate any improvements right now. During that environment, any negotiation that DOES happen to take place is give and take. For every single "get" we ask for, the company wants something else of larger value than the "get" in return. The company spends unlimited resources and manpower to fight everything that our union does; compared to our very limited resources. Union work really is a thankless job. It also doesn't help that a lot of our union resources are spent fighting multiple small fires set daily by both sides. From representing pilots who screwed up during disciplinary hearings, to fighting daily grievances filed by pilots who's contractual rights have been violated.
As for regular communications, The comm rep, and reps that provide info for monthly comms, are mostly regular line pilots, who spend their time generating those comms while they're supposed to be spending time in rest at an overnight, or while trying to make up time with their families. Then those comms have to go through the MEC and ALPA lawyers for approval before dissemination. (To ensure that they / we do not get into any trouble for something communicated that wasn't supposed to be). The company demands that A LOT of things are done under non-disclosure agreements. Likewise, the union does a lot of things in executive session, so as to not let loose information float around back to the company, showing their hand. For the most part, I think the Comms have been decent, given the circumstances. But yes, they could always be better, and more frequent. I encourage that everyone reach out to their reps, and P2P's, if they have any questions.

 

That recent reserve LOA that didn't even make it to a vote seriously damaged the unions relationship with management. Management now thinks the unions has no understanding of what the pilot group actually wants which makes them less inclined to spend resources to make agreements that will just get pooped on my the pilots. I don't know what the path forward is,. But it needs to start with the union and the pilot group getting on the same page. Examples, a recent ALPA email gave a list of priorities that was exactly opposite of the priorities of 90% of the pilots.

 

If you have been here over 9 months, then you are senior to 1/3 of the pilot group, that third is entirely unrepresented in the union, which is part of why the union was so confused about retention bonus, it didn't matter to them. Get involved with the union! No matter how Jr you are, we need you. Stay open to learning what you don't know, but get involved, please.

 

It’s 28R, correct?

 

The feedback that the Union got from the pilot group was an overwhelming "No! This loa isn't anywhere near acceptable!" Hence dropping it. If a majority had wanted it, then they sure were silent about it.

 

Yes, it’s 13,000’ of pavement.

 

Excellent points Smutter and Griff.