V2500

Their three-year term begins 3/1/2022

SmitteyB

I was a status rep (ALPA lingo for LEC rep) at my small regional. It is a huge time commitment. You will get calls from pilots who don't know the contract and think its your job to explain it to them. You will be on many conference calls per week during negotiations. The steak dinner and glass of wine during MEC meetings don't even come close to compensating the time lost with your family.

Not for the faint of heart, but can be very rewarding.

One thing union work taught me is how little line pilots actually understand. Trying to protect pilots and doing the right thing for the pilot group is interpreted by line pilots as selfishness and being labeled a traitor. Exhibit A - the bashing of CK for putting forth an LOA which he believed was a good deal for the pilot group. The union worked EXACTLY as designed. The pilot group was informed, read the agreement, and decided it was not good enough. Period.

Roy Biggins

You had my up until the last paragraph. I’ve never seen such an egomaniac at the helm of the MEC. This thing was botched going back to LOA 12. If Chris had it his way, LOA 13 would not have been sent to the pilots for a vote either. Statements he’s made since then are extremely disconcerting. I talk to my reps on a regular basis, so I consider myself fairly well informed to the inner workings of our MEC. As I said before, my biggest concern is CK’s inability to recognize past mistakes and learn from them. That is a huge liability in leadership. He’s lost the support of rank and file pilots; he’s got to go. Problem is, we need new bodies to step up for LEC. It’s a huge time commitment and sacrifice, so I completely understand why so many are reluctant.

SmitteyB

I'm not defending CK, whatsoever. I think LOA13 was poor, and I voted NO. But I understand how it made it out of the MEC and to the pilot group for possible ratification. If the MEC had voted that down, the membership would have complained that the opportunity was stolen from us to determine our own fate. Union work is a very tough balancing act of trying to get very "Type A " people to not shoot themselves in the head. We are methodical, critical thinkers in our airplanes, but extremely emotional about our careers and perceived fair work rules and compensation. But to pin the blame exclusively on the MEC Chairman, I believe, is short-sighted. I think its great that you are connected with your rep, because a lot of guys set the brake, run the checklist, and go home and don't read union emails let alone know who their reps are.

Again, not trying to defend CK. Just saying union work isn't always black and white. Hard decisions have to be made sometimes, even if that makes you look like the bad guy.

Climbto450

I couldn't agree more Smitty. The process worked as it should we as a group decided our fate.

PSU Flyer

Really? You don’t think the pilot group should’ve gotten to vote on LOA 12? And you also agree with the MEC pushing hard for a yes vote on LOA 13 as opposed to giving the pilot group the good and bad and letting them decide? Those are the two issues that most people I’ve talked to are upset with.

SaintNick

This is the reason that myself and others I chat with are upset with CK about. I’ve seen used car salesman use less of a sell job the CK did for loa 13

V2500

The process was fatally flawed. There was zero polling since he took office, zero membership input, and the membership was purposefully kept in the dark for months during the time gap between LOA12 and LOA13. Secret negotiations occurred late last year to further erode scope, all of it in an attempt to retroactively “fix” LOA12 by expanding the scope concessions to more closely match the true intent of the NEA. LOA13 was then desperately sold to the membership like a used car. After LOA13 failed, he deflected and blamed both the volunteers and the membership. There was never any accountability. He should be gone.

AYLflyer

While the statement itself may be true based on what you're expecting the line pilots to know, I do find it a bit insulting since the union is constantly unable to tell the line pilots the inner workings of what is currently going on. We get broad open ended answers to questions because of NDAs or other confidentiality agreements. So sure, many pilots are uninformed out of pure laziness, especially when it comes to contract knowledge. A lot of us though? We ask questions and are basically told we can't be given the answer, or even an idea of what's going on. It's like we're all sitting in a classroom with our hands raised and the teacher telling us to put our hands down.

Before the NEA LOA came out, how many threads did we have on here with rumors and bad information? It was because whenever a question was asked, we were told that we'd get details or some bullet points soon, which also led to more questions that would be unanswered, and then we were presented with a steaming pile of dog poo to vote on.

Climbto450

while I agree with you on the LOA12 issue we will have to respectfully disagree on the rest of your perspective. The MEC could have just accepted the offer from the company and passed LOA13 the fact that we voted on it unlike LOA12 showed me that this time the process worked. It wasn't a negotiation it was an offer, we turned it down. The company then decided to violate the CBA and move forward. We get to negotiate CBA 2.0 next year I hope to see the same strength that we showed on the LOA13 vote..