Jay Heppner sent out a very well thought out letter today to the pilots at ALPA FFDCs explaining what he is going to do as ALPA President to fix the mess we are seeing at the FFDCs. This platform will deliver to the members tangibles of what they want. He's also extremely approachable so make sure you share your concerns with him.

Make sure you tell your reps to support him come October!

 

There are a couple of problems with this:

1. He's running for office, so this could be an empty promise. (see Every politician ever elected.)

2. Contract language is a 2-way street, and if management is determined not to include something, they won't. Further, Heppner isn't about to ask for a sacrifice by the major airline pilots to enhance the regionals (though I believe that's what should happen).

3. ALPA can't do anything about SkyWest (non-union) and Republic (IBT).

4. As long as regional MEC's are willing/forced to undercut each other, this isn't going to change.

5. As long as pilots continue to show up in regional classes for very low wages, this isn't going to change.

6. As long as pilots that are furloughed from one regional continue to recycle at the bottom of the list--and pay scale--at another regional, this isn't going to change.

7. This isn't going to change until the regionals are suffering a mass shortage of pilots, a day which I think is coming because of retirements/attrition and the lack of new pilots in the training pipeline.

 

SKW group is fed-up. If ALPA came up with an holistic and practical roadmap to improvement, SAPA would go probably go along with it and if SGU didn't cooperate, I think the pilot group would vote in ALPA at this point.

I'm sure IBT would play ball too.

 

Unless this same message was sent to mainline pilots too JH is just pandering.

 

Yawn. Political pandering. Heppner has been making empty promises of flow through to all the ALPA UAX carriers for several months now. Then he held that FFD carrier job fair/publicity stunt. The candidates running for ALPA office know that they can't win without the regionals behind them, because the majors are always too fractured. Hence Heide and now Jay pandering. Mark my words, by the 4th week in October, all of these candidates will forget we even exist.

 

It's nothing but political pandering for votes...We can't really fix ALPA and don't have the will or motivation to make ALPA a real union. Obviously, the current association model doesn't work in our contemporary times. So, the solution is to try and K**S as many butts as possible in order to keep kicking the can down the road. Heaven forbid that ALPA might actually change their charter and attempt to level the playing field...NOPE! We are going to keep the obsolete paradigm alive, because there is NO WAY any of these guys at mainline will EVER give up a single dime ( NOR AM I SAYING THEY SHOULD! ). So, ALPA rolls-out a FFD "carrot" after the "Taking it Back" campaign failed.
ALPA has done great work in the realm of safety, regulation and it's legal/medical services to pilots. As a negotiating agent...FAILURE isn't a strong enough word.

 

I don't see one concrete plan in his two pages of fluff. I heard the Open Houses he set up were a huge waste of time. People with thousands of hours of PIC time told to get more time and then come back. Let the sign up procedure for his Open House sessions serve as a warning.

Please, no more ALPA insiders collecting 1/2 million paycheck at our expense as business as usual continues at the Regional level. Where are the regional pilot candidates?

 

If a regional pilot were to be nominated, you'd see a smear campaign the likes of which has yet to be imagined. I have personally heard all the "we're one of you" from the horse's mouth ( I started out flying a twin-Beech...zzzzzzzz ). Cry me a river, sir. ALPA is ONE legacy carrier away from becoming irrelevant, and if they stay in the same archaic paradigm that is what they will become. ALPA National has proven overwhelmingly which pilot groups they favor...They would be better served becoming strictly an insurance and consulting firm that the INDIVIDUAL Associations can contract for their service, and let members pay for what they want/need...

 

One very important point you guys are skirting around is that ALPA WILL elect a new president this October. What could be done or what should be done is certainly the responsibility of each member to discuss and key to making positive change in our union, but still, October = new president.

Having watched 20+ years worth of national elections, I appreciate a candidate who announces his candidacy early in the election cycle to be vetted and understands issues important to each MEC. My preference is to have time to vet a candidate and provide input to my council officers.

In contrast I've seen candidates hide in the shadows, garner back room deals and count votes, then announce their intent to serve at zero hour during the BOD meeting. Pay attention this year, you'll see it happen. It's sickening and it's the epitome of closed door politics and takes the membership completely out of the equation.

I'll be the first to admit that ALPA is not perfect, I have my own hit list of things I think should be changed but I realize it's impossible to change them by October. As an organization, ALPA moves untenably slow but throughout our history we do good work. So this October we'll be electing another figurehead to lead an organization that moves to slow. Fact. I'm not marginalizing the job of ALPA president, it's vitally important and as much as we malign each incumbent, they do (have the potential) to do good work.

Regarding Jay Heppner's candidacy, look at his track record and vet his background, it's solid.

 

Very well said...