ASA Furlough Assistance passes
 

For those who helped lay the ground work for this, thank you!

While I consider this a small victory, it seems a bit pitiful how it worked out:

Of the 1,578 eligible voters, 354 cast a ballot. That equates to a 22.4 percent voter turnout. Those voting IN FAVOR of the assessment numbered 198. OPPOSING votes were tallied at 160. Among the 354 votes cast, the measure passed by a 54.80 percent to 45.20 percent margin.

It failed at PSA....

Congrats on it though.

Congrats to the 80 at ASA.

It wasn't even brought up to vote (or brought up at all as far as I know) at Comair for the 298...

Has anyone gotten thier COBRA packet in the mail yet? Thank you to all ASA pilots, this will be a huge help.

what was this for?

Great news! Glad this passed. I would have expected a higher voter turnout, but still good for the guys on the street. Best wishes to you all.

I was glad to see it pass. I voted for it, but was very surprised at the low vote count. Insurance is a necessity for guys or gals with families, and also, karma baby!

12.55% of the entire pilot group deciding something that involves money, their paychecks, and their furloughed brothers and sisters. Truly pathetic. At least the majority minority made the correct, moral choice.

Congratulations to those furloughed at ASA. Hopefully this will ease the burden somewhat during these financially uncertain times.

Try this on for size. A furloughee is bragging on the ALPA message board that he voted in favor even though he was told he wouldn't be eligible to vote.

Does it seem ethical that the furloughees got to vote on this (even though they were on inactive status before the vote closed)? Wouldn't it be nice is the 38 votes this thing passed by were furloughees voting themselves a check?

I was wondering exactly why there was an extremely low voter turnout for this. Only thing that I could come up with was that the 22.4% were the ones who felt strongly to either side of the vote. Being one of the 80, it is really nice to know that there will be one less bill to handle in the interim.

JP- you have absoutely no basis to even suggest that the 38 other yes votes were made up by furloughed pilots voting before their inactive status, just because one pilot was "bragging" on the ALPA board.

The way the numbers worked out, i believe only 60ish pilots of the 80 were requesting any assistance on their COBRA. The monthly total was roughly a $15 contribution per pilot. This could be substantially less if and when the COBRA part of the stimulus package is put into place and ASA has to kick in 60% of the costs for 9 months or pilots find other interim jobs that offer medical insurance.

The fact that you would even be flaiming people and your fellow pilots over an amount that costs the same as a few trips to Mcdonalds or roughly 50 cents per day is disgusting and shows your true colors when backing your fellow pilots. Judging from your pathetic "its not my problem" attitude I hope you never end up on the street or in a bad medical situation like Eddie Cordle and needing to request the assistance of others. For 1st year pay, GA unemployment quoted me a whopping 183 per week for 16 weeks. How are you supposed to live and pay COBRA off that? But, I forgot, the Acey 80 are just a bunch of whiners that want to complain our way to being able to put food on our plates and have an insurance policy in our pockets. Disgustingly pathetic, isnt it JP?

Why is it that you always have to find a downside for absolutely everything? Regardless, probationary pilots (I.E. the furloughees with less than 1 year service following the completion of IOE) are ineligible to cast ballots for a vote. So, no, the 38 votes that passed the furlough assistance fund were NOT furloughees writing themselves a check.

At times they can vote on the automated system, but when the votes are counted and verified, those not eligible are thrown out. I have seen that happen a few times. You have to be a member in good standing for your vote to count.

Hold on just a second! I just asked the question. Are we not allowed to question things now?

And before you continue your rampage, I'm the one who suggested we start a private fund with larger contributions rather than flush your money down ALPA's black hole. I'm willing to contribute far above what ALPA was asking. I never said I didn't support the furloughees, I said we shouldn't do it through ALPA!

You are the one who is flaming me with your untrue and slanderous comments.

Now go ahead and apologize.

It's not just me who's questioning this. If you log onto the ASA ALPA message board, you'll see several pilots questioning this. Pilots not known as complainers.

Apparently ALPA National has had so many calls about this that they're considering "doing something" about the vote.

EVEN IF the furloughees WERE permitted to cast a ballot, it's the fault of the remainder of the pilot group for failing to vote that caused the vote to pass. There is no excuse for so many people to not vote. Anyone who failed to vote has NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN!

It is my personal opinion that the complacency of the ASA pilots to vote should allow the standing vote results to remain intact.

Of course I am completely biased because I am 100% for this assistance fund. I would certainly want this to pass if I suddenly became unemployed, and so would the majority of all other pilots. Those who don't agree should take a hard look back to their first year at ASA and how difficult it was to pay for food, let alone save money in the event of a furlough.

I think a lot of people were put off by how complicated it is to get your VIN and PIN with this new system. Apparently a lot of people either lost it or never registered. Several have said they wanted to vote but were unable.

I agree, though, that the turnout was pathetic. I hope our pilots take the upcoming PBS vote a lot more seriously.

The vote passed and that's all that matters. Everything else has been flamebait and name calling.

Thread closed.