Fredturbo

Sounds like el jefe appealed to peoples sense of selfishness by throwing shiny objects at them causing them to forego any sense of doing what is right. In other words, divide and conquer.

Packrat

Well as I pointed out earlier, the fault doesn't lie with the guys who voted decertification...it lies with the Union who failed to convince 50%+1 that it was in their individual interest to keep it.

Packrat

The mantra at Ford and Harrison. Why? Because it works, especially on pilots.

Vital Signs

This.
Read this.
Re read this...again....again.
Most corporate flying jobs do not or can not have a union because of their small size.
Fractional flying jobs DO need a union.

AirBear

I'm a NetJets Pilot so not involved first hand but I think I have a pretty good handle on what happened. If I'm wrong I certain I'll be corrected

Basically you had 2 groups of pilots that were brought together. Flight Options was union, FlexJet was owned by Bombardier and was non-union. From my understanding Bombardier treated the FlexJet pilots pretty well and they did not need a union. Whereas the Flight Options Pilots had been rode hard and put away wet many times.

You always have a percentage of pilots who are anti-union, even with companies that are very abusive. Often it's because they're politically conservative. And also because you have personality types that need approval from authority figures, or they are narcissistic and will gleefully step over the bodies of their peers to get ahead. I've seen a few of those at NetJets, they're pretty easy to pick out after a few legs of flying with them. They're called "A-Teamers", "Company Leg Humpers", etc.

Now back to the main question. I think the simple answer is non-union FlexJet pilots outnumbered the union Flight Options pilots. I suspect most FlexJets guys had little to no exposure to unions. Combine those pilots with the small percentage of anti-union pilots at Flight Options and with the fact their Teamsters Union had not been very effective fighting KR's very aggressive (ignoring arbitrator's rulings, etc.) stance against the union and you wind up with the vote totals like we saw.

Again, I was not there but I've read extensively about the events. I would also like to hear an impartial history from those who were actually there, or at least as impartial as one can be who was affected by the events.

FNGFO

Broadly speaking you’re right. You have to recall that 21% of the original combined seniority list left, and also that any new hires, those that actually finished class and OE, were screened during the interview. The union rep assigned to sit in on the process was forced to sit at home for 3+ months and threatened with violating “home reserve” if he showed at the training center. Never mind that home reserve speaks only of report time and not location.

Ricci stacked the deck. I don’t blame him for this. Add to this the thought that the union “didn’t sell itself to 50+1 %” which shows you the underlying mindset of the decert crowd. To them the union is some nebulous entity out there that is supposed to take care of them. That they ARE the union never occurred to them. Again, this crowd chose willful ignorance over making informed decisions. I guarantee you that they cannot speak intelligently about a single contract proposal from either side. And I can guarantee you that most won’t look to see what was proposed by the union before the company’s stalling led to arbitration, and therefore won’t know how short their new work conditions fall compared to what was proposed for them. A simple side by side as events unfold would be incredibly damning, but that would require a clarity of thought deeper than thinking IBT equals boogieman.

The ISL is already history. A lot of Flex pilots took it in the shorts there within 30 mins of the decert. That huge, promised raise? Well, Red Label got a bit, the FO’s received small raises to still well below NJ’s rates and everyone received $1000. There’s your raise. Completely consistent with Kenn’s split pay scale philosophy.

Flex was always anti union. Very few of them had ever experienced a union beyond the regional airline level of at all. Those who had been at majors took the recall when it came about supposing they were young enough.

And this all ignores why a union was elected in the first place. Non payment of a 10% bonus, 1/3 reduction of the retirement program, elimination of accrued sick days beyond 2 weeks and the new focus on dedicated crewing to the detriment of seniority were the leading causes. All entirely consistent with Ricci’s 1984 view of how aviation should look, and even then this group chose to give him another chance.

The Red Label program has approximately 200 pilots now. They weren’t about to vote themselves a paycut. Which means that only 118 of the remaining 340 had to be convinced. Given that 1/3 are already predisposed to being anti union and it wasn’t a terribly hard sell once a fifth of the pilot group left. In fact, the numbers played out about exactly as one might think.

There’s a lot of good people left at Flex. Many are trying to get out. I feel for them. Many are my friends. But they also get the company they deserve. The one they voted for. And it’s coming. Like a slow boil or a sledgehammer won’t matter. Kenn only knows one way to operate, and it’s a nightmare for 80% of his employees.

Fly Dog

Bingo! You couldn’t have said it better.

AirBear

FNGFO, thanks for the additional info. This decert will be an important event in aviation labor history. Wouldn't surprise me if someone wrote a book about it sometime down the road.

I think the leaders of the decret movement are going to wish they'd studied history more:

"Peace in our Time"

2668142 by

ThomasMagnum

There is no question that a big “I told you so” is on the way.

wankel7

Almost a year later....

How is it going?