Are you referencing the MEC Officers? If so, I don’t need to hear them say exactly what the Negotiations update said. Once again to much communication becomes over kill. Let it be said and move on. Those who want to apply pressure will and the rest will always make excuses. Welcome to subcontractor airline USA….

NoWork … I won’t quote you out of respect for the majority on here who have you blocked.

Have you ever heard the saying ‘Who’s at the Helm’?

It means who’s in Charge, in Command - who’s steering the ship (organization). A pretty important concept.

I’d say there are many among our ranks who believes the negotiating committee chairman (PM) is the person who is at the helm of our organization - he’s not, and shouldn’t be, and yet it appears like he is.

I’m appreciative of the updates we receive from the negotiating committee, but leadership starts at the top, and it’s kind of hard to rally around something when the person(s) who should be leading the charge aren’t … Leading.

Now go ahead and sling your mud and call me names and dismiss me as an angry man, but it doesn’t change the fact our leadership has been silent, as was pointed out by others.

TA???? Rumors???
 

This is a great idea! Have you submitted a resolution at the local council meeting? I would love to be taught the actual interpretations used and the reasoning why (grievance settlements, MOUs, precedence, etc).


Do you see a difference between “working for the union” and doing “union work?” For example, there are pilots who volunteer to scrub trips every month for the SIG. And there are also benefits specialists, contract administrators, and attorneys who are at the MEC office working on behalf of the pilots. Do you distinguish between the two?

TA???? Rumors???
 

Reading this thread, it seems like the big difference is on the definition of leader. Is the new hire pilot a leader? The captain who does his job professionally and then goes home a leader? The instructor who facilitates the human factors class? Or the pilot who volunteers to lead one of about two dozen committees? Are leaders only the MEC officers? What about the pilots who are the only ones who are actually elected directly by the line pilots? Are they the real leaders since the officers work on direction of them?

Would it make a difference if the exact same emails that we last received form the NC and SPSC were signed by the MEC officers or the MEC as a whole instead? In other words, are we just arguing about whose name is at the bottom of the email or the information itself? To me it seems like it’s an argument about the former and not the latter. Because it seems like there is a lot more push back from who the email came from than what they actually say.

I look forward to your next Informational Picketing Event. Lead on.


And yes the elected reps MUST lead and direct the officers and all committees. That is how the Rules of our union set things up.

I went and checked my emails to verify. The number is 6. Since 8/26 I have received 6 communications from the union. They included communications from the SPSC, NC, Council Reps, Positive Rate and NC two more times. That’s just in the last 11 days including a holiday weekend in which communications came out. Although some notorious posters said it wouldn’t…..

As someone who did union work at a previous legacy I can tell you the union isn’t one or two people. It’s an entire pilot group. This includes us rank and file pilots on the line. The rank and file hold the power not the union volunteers. We are in this position because most of our rank and file are selfish. They look at everything through a lens of what’s best for me. Even though they have been asked to stand up and “hold the line” in numerous communications. They approach this job from a subcontractor mentality.

Well, since you're so good at counting, read this post and point to the communication that makes it true:Unless you think the Strategic Preparedness and Strike Committee and Negotiating Committee Chairs are "our leaders", you cannot produce a communication that makes the second sentence true.



We are in our current position with the rank and file continuing to live their normal lives because they've been given no reason to do anything else. Up until the very last Negotiator's Notepad they've been told that progress is satisfactory. Our membership will respond when they are challenged to respond, but so far our leadership has been too afraid to ask them to do anything. Everybody says, I'll do the right thing, but they won't. Well, guess what? That means a lot of people are ready to go, and many will be pleasantly surprised to see so many of their brothers and sisters marching in the same direction. When leaders stop worrying about the possibility of failure, when they stop doubting the character of the rank and file members, and when they stop looking behind them to see who will follow and start focusing their eyes ahead and concentrate on leading the charge, they may be surprised at how many of us are ready and eager to go and just waiting for the call to arms. Right now they are paralyzed by the fear that we might not show up. We did not picket on Labor Day weekend as part of a 66,000 member strong international union because our leaders did not trust us to show up. We will get nowhere as long as our leaders are paralyzed by fear, fear of going anywhere.






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I think we have a winner. Pilots based in Memphis get to elect 3 Block Reps in their Local Council. Pilots based elsewhere get to elect 1 Block Rep. All those Block Reps together comprise the MEC, the body responsible for steering our ship. They are our elected leaders. They are responsible for their decisions and directly accountable to us. Did we elect them to be rubber stamps for "Subject Matter Experts", or did we elect them to lead?

I value the contributions of the committee volunteers, the staff, and the MEC Officers, but they are not the decision-makers. Well, at least they should not be. After our final negotiating session on 1 Sep failed to produce a TA, somebody made the decision to extend the process and add more meetings to the schedule. Who was that? What was the rationale? Was it the Negotiating Committee and the MEC approved of the decision, or was it the MEC, based on a multitude of factors including the advice of the Negotiating Committee? Did the MEC make the decision, or have they even been briefed about it? Do they know anything more than what was published in the Negotiator's Notepad? Who's conducting this train? Who's piloting this ship?




It absolutely would make a difference. It's not just a name at the bottom of the page, it's about accountability. We can't recall committee chairs, but we can certainly hold those we elect to lead accountable when they don't.






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TA???? Rumors???
 

It seems crystal clear to me that the MEC is driving this train exactly where they want it to go. Otherwise they would communicate the change in the manner they choose to communicate that information. That doesn’t mean you or others agree, (for example, I didn’t agree with the focused negotiations). But the members have positively chosen to allow the MEC to do what it’s currently doing (I didn’t lead a recall effort). The membership can respond to lack of leadership at anytime just as they can respond to challenges from leadership. Do you trust membership or not? You can’t trust the membership to do one and not the other.

As for accountability, that hasn’t changed because of whose name or lack thereof is on the bottom of the email. You are still free to recall or vote in different reps. That’s has not changed since the current contract was ratified and everything that’s happened in between to today.

So again, is it simply whose name is on the bottom of the email or the content of the email itself you have an issue with? Accountability is still spelled out in the constitution & by-laws, regardless.

Would it change your mind if you knew the MEC has not met nor been briefed by the Negotiating Committee since the 1 September meeting with The Company failed to produce a TA, so they have only read the same update you and I have read?


If there was a meeting, the minutes will be published at some point after the October MEC meeting. Don't hold your breath.






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