Alan Shore

From the MEC's weekly update:

Elections for the MEC Negotiating Committee will take place at the Regular MEC meeting to be held Mar 3-6 in Los Angeles, under the terms of the MEC Policy Manual. Previous ALPA service is highly recommended. If you are interested in running for a position on the Negotiating Committee, please contact your local elected representative. The Delta MEC will cover a candidate’s expenses, but not flight pay loss.

What do you ladies and gentlemen know and think about the various candidates?

forgot to bid

NERD

Who are they?

Alan Shore

From what I've heard, the candidates are...

For Chairman:
Matt Coons -- current Negotiating Committee Member
John Morgado -- current Merger Committee Chairman
Heiko Kallenbach -- former Negotiating Committee Member

For Member:
Chris Nevins -- current Negotiating Committee Member
Sam Mason -- former Scope Committee Chairman

Purple Drank

When I spoke to Heiko at a C12 road show, he seemed like a good dude.

But being a "good dude" isn't enough.

IIRC, the "sick leave verification" clause--with its massive loopholes--was his baby, and he has defended it mightily.

I don't think he needs to go back in the game.

Alan Shore

While I agree that Delta's feeble attempt at resurrecting the Sick Leave Monitoring Program in the guise of good-faith basis was unfortunate, it is my understanding that ALPA has put a stop to it. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong.)

In the meantime, I enjoy no longer having to worry about losing 25% of my pay if I call in sick more than an average of 100 hours per year. I have used well over 100 hours this sick leave year so far. Because I have chosen to voluntarily verify those illnesses that required treatment, and because the Company required a doctor's certificate for verification in those circumstances, they were kind enough to pay for 100% of the cost of my doctor's visits.

I have yet to avail myself of sick leave fly back or borrowing from next year's sick leave bank, but I appreciate those improvements as well.

YMMV...

Herkflyr

There have been a lot more positives than negatives in this current contract, and I honestly think a lot of guys are just now realizing it--kind of tough when you keep telling yourself how bad things are, and it somehow never materializes.

Despite all the claims of "reserves will all fly to 99 hours!" reserve is such a good deal now that in the ATL 7ERB, of the bottom 17 guys in the category, 15 got regular lines, including the plug, plus there were 13 lines worth of open time that anyone in the entire category could have been awarded--but chose not to!

If reserve "sucks" so bad then why is it going so senior? And if staffing on the narrowbody fleets get critical and reserves ARE getting abused, then that means that GS are being passed out like halloween candy, and then the reserves will just "Rolling Thunder" it and get lots of money and payback days.

I recently flew with a captain who was a big DPA guy. I disagreed with him, but we actually enjoyed flying together and I hope to fly with him again, where we will continue to respectfully disagree over some beers. Even he, however said, "gee I made more money last year than I expected." That is what you get with the power of compound interest and profit sharing tied to higher base pay rates.

For all the throwing out of "4/8/3/3" as if it were some offensive phrase, it really should be "13/3/3" because with the "4" effective six months early (how often has that ever happened anywhere?) and the "8" effective ON the amenable date, it was actually a better result than a casual "4/8/3/3" would lead folks to conclude.

Timbo

This would be a good time for some DPA guys to step up and take over the negotiating team. At least throw your name in the hat. I'd love to see JM back in!

Alan Shore

I've often wondered why he so completely pulled away from service in spite of his clear passion.

tsquare

Step up then...... Shouldn't be too hard, you just say"No, you owe us" and walk out, right? Then you are gonna get me another week of vacation and bring all the RJ flying back in house.. not to mention C2K + restoration... DO it.