What’s the point exactly in complaining about the appointments to executive management positions?

 

Nope, CBA isn't just circumvented.

 

This bears repeating. I’ve had the same experience and perception. Too many times, it seems that CE (and the SIG for that matter) just doesn’t want to fight every battle that they should, and I’ve never really understood why. Hell, sometimes it feels that they are flat out friendly with the company.

Our average grievance count over the past 16 years on the FedEx ALPA website is less than 12 a year with the highest year listed at 19, and I’m convinced our company does something grievance worthy every single day. Over the past few years, I’ve flown with FO’s from American, Delta, and United, and when I asked them how many grievances were filed a year at their former company, every single answer was “hundreds” (plural).

It would appear that our FedEx ALPA Contract Enforcement is not even close to being industry standard – not by a long shot.

Is it that our CE is so underfunded and understaffed that they just can fight them all – i.e. there are 100 battles to fight but we only have the funding and staff for 12, so which ones do we pick? Is it because they are so overwhelmed defending our pilots being disciplined that they don’t have the time to defend the contract? Is that too many of our union people value their interpersonal relationships with their company counterparts over defending our pilots like they should? I sure wish I knew. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this matter can chime in here and educate us on what we are missing.

If it is simply a funding issue then hell, I’d be willing to pay some extra dues if I knew that it was all going straight to Contract Enforcement. $20 a month from 5,000 pilots is $100,000 – every paycheck $200,000. That surely would do some good. Maybe then our annual grievance count would be more comparable to other companies.

 

You realize that YOU can file a grievance. Alpa can join the grievance and take over, or you can go it alone. If alpa decides not to join, ask why. Maybe there is a good reason. As far as other carriers having hundreds (plural) of grievances a year, well, I would like to see the proof. Maybe they have hundreds of cases each year, but how many actually make it to the grievance process. There are a lot of cases at Fedex that get resolved before they ever make it to the grievance process.

 

Yea, I know all that - I've been around here as long you have. As far as your point on there being a good reason, I have some personal experiences on the matter though that trumps your "opinion" - hint: no reason given at all (like a contract reference) is not a good reason. "Sorry, we just don't see it that way" in and of itself is an unacceptable and inadequate response.

As far as the number of grievances elsewhere at comparable companies, I've literally heard that from numerous sources (like their own union people) multiples times over my career. In any event, there are enough pilots from those companies here to set that matter straight, and I am thoroughly convinced it will be significantly more than 12 a year.

 

I came here from an ALPA regional with less than 1000 pilots and we had dozens of grievances every year. The response I got from my first DART to FDX CE was appalling and after the second one it became clear to me how toothless they are. They were unwilling to negotiate us vaccination pay when almost every other 121 airline (most of whom were barely flying) had it, and this hard sell of a cost neutral at best TA just shows how complicit our Union is with the Company. Based on what I've heard about JD from my friends who are/were at Atlas - that in combination with our cowardly CE will be one of the worst things to happen to our crew force.

4+ years on property and still in my 30s. Despite my misgivings the Union, I have enjoyed all of my time here and the fine folks I have had the pleasure of flying with. However, I am truly concerned about the direction the Company is heading. Equally torn about whether I should be updating my logbook and getting my apps ready...

 

Hi All,

Your new CFO is not unbeatable. His successes here were due to our strategic missteps and overreliance on plausible deniability as much as anything. That said you will be in a struggle that takes coordinated, legally supportable action in the long term. Beware the subtle traps.

 

Oh good. FX ALPA is definitely going to make JD rue the day he stepped on property, lol.