MEMA300

The company knows ten times as much as you think they know? Are you a new hire?

FDX1

I'm not disagreeing that we could, perhaps should, negotiate a larger per diem amount. What I disagree with is the connection that our FDX Pilot negotiators would not do this because it's less dues money to ALPA National. Why would they care? That's just nonsense and illogical. However, using that same logic, perhaps we shouldn't negotiate pay raises because it puts more money into dues.

Taking that a step further, why exactly wouldn't you want our dues going to support ALPA? What part of ALPA would you like to underfund or remove funding from? Safety, R&I, Contract Enforcement? Perhaps you could hire your own attorneys when the company is preparing a discipline case against you? Better yet, how about no union at all, that worked well for the original Purple Pilots with the Tigers merger, or perhaps the other FedEx employees who had their pension replaced with a cash balance plan, and eventual elimination of all retirement plans except the 401K.

I believe there are a couple of airlines that don't have a Union that are hiring pilots. Enjoy the UAE.

Nightflyer

ALPA national does not do a good job of representing cargo carriers. You have heard of the "cargo cutout" haven't you?

If I could wave a wand, I would create an all cargo union with UPS and anyone else who wants to join.

Oh, and you know that no FedEx contract is signed unless it is signed by ALPA National, right? The National President's signature is on the front page. If they don't have to approve the contract, why is his name on it?

Raptor

ALPA has always sought to increase pensionable earnings. Dues are paid on pensionable earnings. I think that’s the “given” reason why per Diem isn’t a high priority for ALPA?

flextodaline

Amen! All I ever heard about during the FPA days was that we needed ALPA's "war chest", bottomless pit of money in order to negotiate a real contract.......how'd that work out for us on the last one

Also, lets not put the cart before the horse talking about what we want. We need to come up with an overall battle plan first. By that I mean a paradigm shift in having a professional, full-time, labor relations attorney negotiate for us, instead of full-time pilots/part-time negotiators---not intended as a dig against our guys that serve, but we should be sending up pro's against the pro's and let our negotiating team act as behind the scenes SME's, and not front line troops where they can see us blink.

FrankTheTank

No more BS implementation schedule!

MaydayMark

I think that ftdl is on to something here. With our "pilot negotiators" aren't we putting our Junior Varsity up against a Fortune 100 Professional NFL team?

FXLAX

If the MEC is comprised of FDX pilots who chooses the NC who also comprise of FDX pilots, how does ALPA National dictate what is negotiated and approved by the MEC?

I’ve heard this “ALPA national” argument before but it’s never made sense to me. I know that if I was on the MEC or the NC, I wouldn’t care what ALPA national thought or said, assuming they try to dictated to individual MECs.

package puppy

So then you condone undermining your Negotiating Committee by publishing your bottom line in a public forum? That would certainly explain past performance. :-/

Bill Kilgore

Love the spirit of this thread. I'm probably gonna get yelled at as a pu$$y here, but could someone explain why they believe the federal government would allow us to strike?