Flybywyr

I've been keeping up with most of the posts in this forum over the last month. The emotions are getting high. What this TA really comes down to is a business decision. Does voting yes or no advance your position ? The company said yes so it obviously is a good business decision for them. Is the TA a good business decision for us ? Do we have the Unity to make a no vote work ? We must be unified to pull a no vote off. I've talked to quite a few pilots that are voting yes because they don't believe that we have the Unity to get what we want. They aren't voting yes because they think this is an awesome contract, they are voting yes because they don't think we can do better. They say they are happy with the current book, then why not wait and see what we can get if we press the boundries. They don't even realize the loss in value in the A-plan or the mystical health care contributions. When it comes down to it if we don't show Unity we will get the same TA1 in a renegotiated TA2.

My background, I've flown for 6 airlines and have no military experience. I worked at an airline that voted in ALPA with 50% plus one vote! But 2 weeks later we had every pilot join ALPA except one that was to retire in 6 months. That was Unity, we took contract negotiations to the last hour plus 1 and got our first contract we walked, albeit for only 1 hour, but that was Unity. I worked at another airline after being released for self help that only had 3 flights in 7 days leave on time. That was Unity. When I was furloughed at another airline not ONE pilot flew extra until we were recalled. That was Unity. After almost 18 years, I have yet to see this pilot group show that kind of Unity. Why is that ? I believe it is the recent lack of leadership. What is Unity ? It's a unified group that is bonded together by a strong leader. CD has not been given the chance to show how far he is willing to push, SS showed his cards. Billboards will not get you a contract. Hundreds of pilots standing together along Democrat is a start but SS didn't continue that pressure. SS bought into the new negotiations strategy while the whole time FedEx was sticking to their tried and true strategy. And to be honest why would they change ? If it's not broken don't fix it. We need some great leaders to stand up. We have some awesome people that weren't "allowed" to even interview for Negotiations chairman because they were seen as too radical.

Despite what the negotiations committe told us they did NOT squeeze the bottom dollar out of the company. How do I know? We didn't even take a strike vote. We never even had a stare down so how could we have blinked if we never had the contest ? How do they KNOW that the NMB will NEVER release us ? Unless you push a boundry you will never know how far you can push. And believe me there are some on this board that know me (FBH for one) that know that I personally push my physical boundries all the time. I will NEVER have a SLB payout. I am in the seniorty that will get screwed in both holes with this TA retirement, however at first I was mesmerized by the "Big B����bies" pay rates. But after reading the TA as a whole it doesn't pass the smell test. We never pushed the boundry.

Do I think we will ever get more than a measly signing bonus ? Not sure. Do I think we'll ever get back pay? Not sure. Do I think we will ever get more than the standard 3% pay raises that FedEx loves? Not sure. Do I think that FedEx will ever up the A-plan ? Not sure. But if we don't show Unity and push the boundry we will NEVER know. If you do show Unity I know we will do better than TA1 how much better and when that will be is all in a crystal ball. But I do know one thing I'd rather have what we have now than pay for the
"Big B����bies" the NC and company are flashing us.

Viper446

[QUOTE=Flybywyr;1986714]I've been keeping up with most of the posts in this forum over the last month. The emotions are getting high. What this TA really comes down to is a business decision.

We have come a long way since we got our first union in 1993 with Alpa, then the company controlled FPA and then back to Alpa. A lot of the original pro company guys are gone. I got hired here in 1996 and I can tell you my class and almost everyone in my peer group is very aware of unity and what it means to negotiations. I'm not saying everyone of my peers is going to vote no, but they are certainly more in tune with the whole negotiation process and what it means. There is a lot of unity here. And if guys are unsure of the unity, then vote no and see how many guys vote no. Voting yes just because you are unsure of the unity is lame. This vote can be a watershed for us and the union. If this TA has a strong No vote, we will be sending a message to the company and our union leadership of where we stand. Don't forget, the MEC and NC work for us, the voting pilots.

I'm going to disagree with you on the strike vote. Strike votes are pointless. And its easy for a lot of guys to vote yes on a strike vote who have no intention of standing shoulder to shoulder with you when you actually walk out. Will the NMB release us, who knows?

Your examples of previous companies you have worked at and the unity there are what we are striving for here. We have had to over come a lot of anti union sentiment among our own pilots that are now gone. I flew with Captains who told me they couldn't wait to cross the picket line when Alpa was talking about a strike in 1993. I may be off on the year. Captains that were happy making 50hr less than their counterparts at the majors.

But I think this vote is really going to show where we stand as a pilot group.

Overnitefr8

Unfortunately, I think we were showing some pretty good unity through the summer. But the NC took the first bait of "real money" and went with it. If we were still at the table right now, we probably would have seen some more money thrown on the table. Who knows what the unity will be like if we vote this down. Hopefully it stays close to the same. The more we stick together rather than argue with each other, the better off we will be.

Flybywyr

Agreed, we will see really how far we've come since the Pilot Handbook.

I also agree that a strike vote is useless however we never took it to a point where we voted and at least when through the motions.

iarapilot

Some would say that you are trying to burn the house down!

And I understand, but disagree, with the mentality that one thinks we dont have the unity, therefore that is "another" reason to vote yes. Are "we" really enough of a genius to gauge that accurately and use that as a basis to formulate a vote?

Dang, after reading the TA and looking at the concrete evidence of what you have read, you should vote on that info and not what you think others will do. Screw the perceived disunity of the others. You just might be wrong in your assessment.