I know I should have paid a little more attention with the APA emails that came my way in the last 2 years or so, but having been furloughed for the last 8 years, I kind of decided to insulate myself and not get my hopes up by reading the APA emails.

Having said that, it has come to light that their is a referendum coming about within APA.

Anyone willing to give me their quick and dirty reasons as to why this referendum has(or will) take place?

Are their some abuses, non-compliance, or just plain Dog ####ing laziness taking place?

Thanks for any insight. Not much response from my sound offs that I have sent lately. to the APA

 

No Info???

Or perhaps I just don't realize how sensitive this question actually is? If that's the case, pls excuse my ignorance, seriously.

oh well time will tell.

 

Hey aafurloughee, I'm f'd from another carrier, but have friends/family active at AA...I'll get on the horn today and try to get some answers for you, but could you be a tad more specific what this referrendum (?sp.) is pertaining to? If you don't want to post on a public forum, p.m. me and I'll try to help.

Sorry you haven't gotten any nibbles, but right now the message boards seem to be focused on other issues.

 

Even though he is furloughed,he can call is union rep. If you need the number
pm me. I already pm'ed you and told you what was going on. You can also get on the APA website. It doesn't belong here.

 

It's a power struggle caused by a difference in opinion between the National Officers and some members of the APA Board of Directors. It started many months ago when the APA pres Hill started public confrontations with AMR management that some on the APA board considered counterproductive. Hill considered it necessary to bring management to the negotiating table.

The working relationship between the National Officers at APA and the Board of Directors has deteriorated to the point where last fall a slim majority of the BOD passed a resolution to take away the election of the National Officers by the APA membership and instead have the NO's appointed by the BOD. That way they'd have always be speaking from the same sheet of paper and if not then the BOD would simply fire the NO's and appoint new ones.

Many APA members saw this as a power grab by a few members of the APA BOD and pushed through a grassroots effort to allow APA members to continue to elect the NO's. That vote will be sent to the membership soon.

The end result of all of this is that APA is not working for the line pilots, we are still months perhaps years away from a contract that expired in May 2008 and AMR management is sitting back laughing their asses off and splitting up piles of money that should be going into employee pockets instead of management pockets. The dysfunction at APA may be causing delays in negotiations but that's hard to prove. In reality, the NMB probably won't release us to cooling off until the economy improves and job losses aren't a problem for the politicians. The NMB is a political tool that is being used to prevent a job action that may result in more job losses. The Administration is afraid of more job losses and they control the NMB. The mess at APA is just the excuse the NMB needs to say we can't be released to cooling off.

Good luck getting back to AA. It's still an OK job although not near the compensation level I think we should be receiving.

 

The NMB's job is to create stability in the transportation system, that is the goal of the Railway Labor Act. They will only allow a release when the parties are sufficiently close that self-help (imposed contract or strike) will motivate one or both parties to close the gap. AMR has not made a profit in quite a while. The APA is proposing to increase costs by over $1 B per year. That is not a small gap, that is the Grand Canyon.

The NMB would only allow self help when that gap is closed. Either AMR needs to start turning a massive profit real soon or the APA needs to set their sights lower or a combination somewhere in between those two. Until the gap is closed, you guys will sit on the sidelines.

 

Allright, back in the house! I don't want to catch you telling the neighbors how to run their affairs anymore... It's one thing to draw a distinction between APA and DALPA to the Delta pilots (where you make a compelling argument), quite another to tell another groupwhere they should set their sights, or how wrong they are.

You're not necessarily wrong, but you're definitely in the wrong place.

 

There you have it. Right from the DALPA playbook.

Set your sights lower.

 

Okay, I thought this was an open public forum where we were free to say what we want as long as we abide by the rules of the road. I didn't tell anyone to set their sights anywhere, just spouting my opinion like everyone else here. Unless you are the forum moderator and I violated the terms of service, you don't really need to tell what I can and can't say here.

 

So what do you think the solution is? When will the NMB release them? Right from the throw rocks from the sideline but I don't have any original ideas playbook.