Quote:
Originally Posted by fly2ski
Would you want to go back to flying the line with reduced BLG's or eat at Ruth's Chris and smoke expensive cubans whilst grab assing support staff? Doubt we will see a single NC resignation, they will be dragged out kicking and screaming all the way. I think one of them is out on medical too.
I spent almost 3 years on the MEC and I take issue with this typical, ignorant characterization of that body. I took the job reluctantly in the hopes that I could give back since I had never taken the time to contribute to ALPA. Now, as an empty nester, I had run out of excuses and answered the request of several colleagues to throw my name in the hat.
I had no motivation to eat at Ruth's Chris or smoke expensive cigars (although I have done both
on my own dime).
What i got was at least 2-4 hours of unpaid work per day making phone calls and answering emails. I eventually had to promise my wife that I would quit by 13:00L at the expense of my marriage. During Covid I could count on at least one if not two 1-2 hour on-line MEC meetings per week. Again, unpaid. What I did get paid for was 4 either online or in-person 5-day MEC meetings per year - once a quarter. That consisted of paid travel to and from MEM for meetings Mon-Fri and paid travel home (in theory). If I could make jumpseats work to save ALPA money, I did. If I could use my MEM car I shared with another pilot, I did rather than expense a rental car to ALPA. Since I eat every day regardless of what I'm doing, I didn't claim per-diem (even though I could) while I was in MEM for the MEC meetings. We usually had a working lunch and one "team" dinner during the week with a PUB event for dinner and a MEM consolidated LEC meeting covering lunch one of the days.
I say, "in theory" because if you drop a 12-day trip for 6 days of ALPA work, you owe 6-days of AFB. We didn't have 6-day trips in our bid pack, so it turned into a huge cluster trying to find a short AFB trip to pay back ALPA. On at least two occasions it was easier to just work a normal trip de-conflicted from the MEC meeting and then do the MEC work for free. Eventually I decided to bid reserve lines to pac-man off R-days for MEC work but as a commuter, reserve wasn't always the best option. Either way, it was a sacrifice.
The bottom line, Mr. fly2ski, is that there's no way anyone does the job of an MEC rep for personal gain. There's none available. It sucks - and people like you make it worse. I know everyone personally on the MEC at this time and you and other's character assassination behind the anonymity of APC is an easy pu$$y move. You (or others) don't like the job they did, fine. Recall them, or be patient and I'll bet many will step down. Why the F would they want to deal with the likes of you. But, to come on a public forum and disparage their efforts beyond simple disagreement in perspective is uncalled for.