We need a union rep per seat per base. They should have an office in each airport with 3 days of office time from 11-6pm. So that any shift you have there is the possibility beginning or end of shift at some point during the week you can address a union leader face to face. You can use a Capt or FO rep to cover contract questions and get the 4-11. But that allows for each rep to do their normal stuff and only takes an extra 7 hours 6 days a month for the union to have presence and help build the group.

if this is easily torn down then please come up with a better solution. It seems fantastic to me and yes there is a cost to us and the company but you gain so much more transparency.

group chats only do so much. A dart is fantastic but it still doesn’t add that element of personal contact and the personal touch needed to build the group.

 

It's not a bad Idea. I like the Idea of bi-monthly meetings better. I get a lot out of listining to other peoples questions and problems. They add context and perspective to what is happening on the line with the added benifet of the union reps not answering the same questions over and over again. You are right about having Union Reps for every seat and every base. I know there is a head count requirment for an LEC but having two people cover MCO,TPA,MIA and SJU just is not workable.

 

What do you expect the Union to do? They are operating under the limitations of the NMB; we must maintain the status quo. What could be done differently?

We just had the strike bus go to all bases with events in each base. Having a meeting or meet-and-greet in all 13 bases each month would require immense resources. There would need to be 4-5 pilots on full-time FPL. It doesn't happen with the current MEC/LEC reps questioning the 2-3 negotiating committee reps taking FPL.

If you want to see change, it starts at the LEC level(MCO and DEN specifically.)

As for day turns and line construction, I'll be the first to say I'm not happy with it, but we were stupid enough to agree to the current contract with no protections in place. The company is building pairings per the current contract. We can address some of the issues in a new contract.

 

Ah, finally some progress. We are all discussing symptoms of the problem and NOT the actual problem (albeit we are getting closer to it).

The real problem is: our union is not structured correctly AND there is not enough transparency in it. Given that I don't volunteer to do anything, I'm very hesitant to criticize anyone who does. But, my thoughts are that IF someone does volunteer (especially an elected position which they must campaign for), they should be working their ARSE off - especially now. We should all be included on just about everything that the MEC/LECs are discussing at their regular meetings - and I'm aware that the NC is different than the MEC/LEC (discussing other business outside of negotiations). We have 13 bases but only 4 LECs. I know who my CA LEC chair is and have met him face to face. Good dude. Don't know the other two (FO chair and admin). I can imagine the 3 of them have a ton of work to do for the 3 bases they represent but I'm not really sure what that entails. Voting occassionally? Parking passes? The last LEC update on the website was in October and it was about the strike authorization vote. Other than that, the last time I'm aware of any LEC being discussed was the MCO rep who was bragging about not flying on FB. Is there anyone who actually knows all that the LEC does - its not on the website and they're not allowed to post here. I would surmise most reading this don't - which is the problem. Besides, asking someone what they do (in a tone that suggests they need to justify their job) only leads to embellishment of the book answer of the job description. I mean, what EXACTLY does each LEC member do whenever charging toward union business?

The F9 ALPA website should be updated regularly - right now the calendar shows a MEC meeting Feb 6-9 and that's it. The committees that seem the most active, and that I truly appreciate, are Hotel, Grievance, FOQA/ASAP and safety but what about the other committees? P2P. Don't need specifics but how many people have they helped? What do they see as the greatest problem area amongst our group and what do they propose as the fix? Training? Strategic planning? HIMS/human factors? I admit that I may have missed an update from any of these - the last posted P2P update was in 2022. I would REALLY like to know exactly what the scheduling committee does, how much insight they have into the "system" and what issues are regularly occurring w/ the company. BOTs seemed to be a hot topic a while back but I'm more interested in the company "hiding" trips and the lack of FDO despite having greater than 20 RSV lines. Just a few examples - there are others.

I know there's a lot going on. I know union peeps are doing quite a bit - It'd just be nice to see a little more tranparency.

One thing I WILL note is that the communication committee - hats off for the increased work. The recent pilot contract comparison is MUST READ for all F9ers.

 

Don't get me started on the strike bus. I dont remember having a choice on that one. A meet and greet is not the same as a Union Meeting. Now I don't know the rules ,but I was under the impression the Union work was volunteer I don't think it is to much of a strech to have a few reps spend a few hours every other month engaging with the Pilot group. I have things I would rather do as well, But given the opportunity I will go to some Union meetings, and I don't expect to be compensated for it.

I like many of the pilots at this company want an opportunity to enguge with Our Union in formal Union meetings. Of all the things this Union spends money of this is a silly place to draw the line. I am getting a sence of reluctance about even having any meetings. All I can say is if you want the full support of the pilot group you need to do the work. Again I don't want an open bar or food. a hotel confrence room with some coffee/water will be just fine. If you want we can record it and post it online to keep people who coulden't attend in the loop.

Lastly so far as line construction goes (like the rest of the contract) there is no silver bullet there is only risk benefit analysis. To fully comprehend possable changes we would need to long technical discussions to properly understand how the piece's fit together. Preferably with a large number of pilots at once so we can ask questions from diffrent prespectives. unfortunatly a one on one airport meet 15 min before my show time or even sitting outside around the bus are not conductive to that type of long format discussion.

 

When there’s something to vote on they’ll be plenty of road shows. As far as meetings the last few I went to had less than 10 pilots each. Half of those 10 were union officials and there was plenty of notice.
LEC reps do plenty. They represent constituents in sec 19, deal with chief pilots before it turns into a sec 19, and basically put out fires on a daily basis. I’ll estimate 15-20 hrs a week outside of flying depending on the week.

 

BagMan, you got a lot of opinions and great ideas about union work, contract negotiations, and how things ought to be.

Please tell me you volunteer your time, or even have a cabinet spot in the union?

 

yeah let’s have a meeting where we potentially have f9 pilots discussing non statues quo strategies. Then record that for everyone. Maybe we could put it on fb?

 

😂😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Dude....lay off the edibles!

 

I was being more sarcastic.

But, the point remains. Does he do anything for the actual union? The guy is talking about bimonthly meetings and union reps for every seat every base. 4-5 extra members on FPL as one poster said.
Why doesn’t he go answer some of those questions at bimonthly meetings? Or flex his ideas there?

You wanna act like a union rep in your base? Kewl. Go volunteer your free time.

You don’t know your union rep? Volunteer and go on a meet and greet tour at your base.

You got great ideas for the negotiations? Run for the negation committee and you can work side by side with JL.

Of course the implication here is he has to give up his free time. He has to know his contract. Or he has to understand the whole negotiations process.

But why bother. just throw out good ideas and demands for other people to pursue.