No offense taken. From my earlier posts:

"We need the rank and file to help in this fight."

"As far as my plea for help from ALPA, in ALPA I am referring to you. Each of you. That is where our strength is! We have been given excellent support from National, but the kind of help we need will only come from a groundswell of rank and file members like yourself. I thank all of our brothers and sisters who have participated in our rally's and picket's.(DALPA, ASTAR etc. ..etc..)"

By ALPA I mean you! If it got your attention, it worked.

 

As a former midwest guy, I feel lost like the original poster, if I knew what would have happened to me in this industry i don't know if I would have started,but then again, where is the fun in not knowing if you're gonna lose your job or not?
MD80's were nice, 717's were a little nicer, everytime I feel im losing faith in ALPA I just put on my lanyard, and it all feels ...better!

 

Merry Christmas to all the Midwest guys out of a job this holiday season.Thanks to all who have expressed their concern and a pox on all that benefit from our deplorable treatment.

 

Yes, ALPA should help.

No, ALPA will not step in and help.

Prater is the most useless ALPA president in history. He is so out of his depth it would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. Look at all the failures that have come on Prater's watch. US Air, AWA, Skywest, Colgan, Polar, Atlas. I think that except for a few small Canadian regionals ALPA has lost every rep election in the last 2 years.

ALPA is an association, not a union. Teamsters are a union, UAW are a union. ALPA is, like the other guys said, an grouping of very divergent pilot groups with widely varying agendas.

ALPA does some things well. Their EF&A guys are great at telling you how much you can't get from management. The Safety guys are top notch and legal is worth it if you shoot your own airplane, just ask around the AAA PHL crew room. ALPA is a lot better than the alternative (see USAPA for info) but again, ALPA only works as long as you have good pilots in your group that can match wits with company financial, legal and labor professionals. Some time you can, some times you can't. ALPA Natinal will do nothing more than stand back and try not to **** off the people who most can contribute dues. They will wring their hands even in the face of their own constitution and bylaws.

It is sad but you guys at Midwest are getting screwed without lubrication. We America West pilots feel your pain, just not as sharp. We have guys getting furloughed while new hire US East pilots have jobs. I hope it works out for you all.

This kind of speaks to the old adage in aviation: never **** off your copilot - he may your chief pilot at your next job.

 

Now this is my opinion only. After 25 years of being a tried and true ALPA member (including 4 years on the MEC, and committee chairmanship), National ALPA (besides safety, accident investigation, and some legislative affairs) is about as useful ast t..s on a ......nevermind. You get the point. They won't help you, they won't try and "urge" local to do anything, they will be very happy allowing your local to kick you to the curb once it appears dues money will be lost. CactusMike is right

 

I just about had an attack today!
Just thinking....What happened to my 717 flying?Lost my seat on the 80...had to move to the boeing...and then had to move to the curb to make way for E170's? I should be flying those, not RAH! How is this any different from Gojets and TSA? These RAH guys..."Brothers" didn't say "Hell no we won't go"...they just show up!

Whats worse than the whole TSA Gojets thing is....I was left for nothing!
This is what its like:
We(Midwest) are the devoted wife who was always there, yet ended up getting kicked out of the house, and walked into her home to collect her final possesions, only to find some 2 dollar tranny sitting in her husbands(Management) lap..(A very strange comparison,but nonetheless fitting!)And now the divorce lawyer(ALPA) forgets about her and turns to focus on the Madonna/Guy Ritchie deal...Un Be Lievable

 

We can't do much until you guys strike. Do that and we won't fly. I don't have much of a say in it anyway because I'm on the street. Republic existed before this flying, and wasn't meant to be a whipsaw (well, it was to the Chautauqua guys but that failed) and that's how it differs from the Gojet thing, they were created specifically for the purpose of breaking up ALPA at TSA. Until you guys walk, or we walk because we're in negotiations there isn't much we as a pilot group can legally do.

We're pawns in this thing too. What happens if/when Midwest agrees to concessions to fly the 170s? Then we end up on the street in violation of our CBA (our scope has us flying anything RAH owns unless it's a "new" dry lease agreement, IBT is grieving the Midwest stuff too). Every CBA out there is only as good as the paper it's written on if that happens. I'm not trying to make you sympathetic to the situation over here, I'm just pointing out that we (pilots) on both sides are being played against each other here and the only winners will be Bedford and Hoeksema.

 

This whole situation blows. I wonder what anyone outside of your pilot group can do to help if you guys aren't willing to go on strike over this bull****. Let's find out if the RAH guys are serious about not flying with you on strike. The company may not be salvageable, but at least other CEO's might remove this one from the play book. One thing is certain, they are watching....

 

I wanted to add a little more to this while I'm thinking about it. Midwest guys/gals I hope you don't construe any of this as an insult towards you. I don't think Midwest is destined to survive, this deal is a stay of execution for Midwest and this is why:

When Frontier filed Ch11 earlier this year Republic was out of DEN like a fat kid in dodge ball. Bedford said he didn't want to get screwed out of money owed to the company for a fee for departure contract that was gutted by bankruptcy judges similar to what happened with Delta a few years back.

So why, just 4 months later would he enter into a contract with an airline that was already falling apart and parking airplanes? He's stated time and time again that he has no desire to start branded flying. Midwest has no real assets that RAH can use. The planes are leased and larger than anything allowed under the various scope clauses. There isn't lucrative gate space at a congested airport (US at DCA). The only thing that is worth any money is the operating certificate. They found out how hard starting a new one was with Republic, which is the whole reason they bought Shuttle America.

Why would RAH need a fourth certificate? I didn't think much about (this is where it gets disgusting) it until Wayne Heller issued his "RAH pilots make too much to fly the 190 competitively" podcast. But wait, we don't have any 190s. Our scope with our partners wouldn't allow for anything larger than an 86 seat aircraft in single class configuration. Who would we fly 190s for anyway?

I don't believe UAL has any seat restrictions and they're parking 737s. The 190 would be a good replacement (IF THEY STAY AT MAINLINE) for the -500s while the A320s take care of the rest. The other option is Alaska which is a constant rumor around here. A third would be some sort of Star Alliance deal in Hawaii which is why we started the stuff with Hakalugi out there.

Believe me when I say this. Bedford is no better than JO. He doesn't care about anything but the $$$. The difference in his approach is that he has a bad cop in Heller and does a great job throwing his religion into the equation which makes him look good. Crazy theory? Yes but they're doing a fantastic job trying to scare the junior guys into taking concessions (furloughing, crying about parking planes) yet calling us back with no additional flying to be seen. They know something we don't.

Midwest guys, this is why I wish you would stop attacking the pilots at RAH on this and start going after the CEOs of our two respective companies. Believe me, we have just as much to lose here. If you don't agree to concessions, you lose your jobs. If you do, we lose ours. In the end we all lose and management wins.

 

ALPO....not...A.L.P.A