Benzobait,

You love to paint me into the corner of the jaded Regional guy. I wasn't jaded by ALPA at all. What I did see them do is nothing. I was paid "food stamp" wages and I paid 1.9% of those meager wages to ALPA. I had a CBA. I could follow the rules. I saw the company not follow the rules. I saw grievances get filed and those grievances went into the rotating file cabinet. It doesn't matter. We were a contract company for Delta.

This is different. I know. We are our own entity. When we joint ALPA we're something different. We've attached ourself to something that we ALL have to be comfortable with. I'm comfortable with many things that ALPA can provide to our group. I'm not comfortable with about the same "many" things that I don't like and what I don't want to be associated with as a group. That's where we have to be real careful on this vote.

-Bubs

Thanks....

Abstaining from the vote is not a good choice. VOTE! YES or NO.

History says that's not a good choice.

P3 Bubba,
I think you're looking at the same big pic I am. Not from the other side, but a slightly different angle. I may be putting words in your mouth but it appears to me you are realizing ALPA has plenty of warts, but they're festering less than those of the other options.

You and I are newbies to JetBlue but definitely not to the world. Say what you want about 'Mil-specs' but our BS meters are better tuned than most. You are adept at ignoring the shiny flashy diversions of the illusionist to catch him as he hides the ball in his palm. You obviously saw through the misdirection of the above-mentioned ELT call, and I bet you recognized when the pizza man was lying through his teeth to you during indoc (or at least you realized it when the PEA dropped).

Your choice when the ballot drops is between a continued but bolder DR and a new direction under ALPA. Abstaining will only weaken the credibility of the pilot group no matter what the outcome. A write-in will be for ALPA, but with weakened negotiating cred as well.

ALPA isn't perfect. Even with the best altruistic crew possible in the MEC, people have agendas and they tend to be selfish. But I've met a few of the likely candidates just like I've met the current rein-holders. I trust the former more.

Some day we'll have to drink a few beers across the table together while we debate the MEC candidates and priorities for our union bylaws.

Don't let any one bully you into a vote, and definitely not into a non-vote. But when you sit down to type it in, imagine Jett and Rhino sitting across the table from you and try to think which one you'd rather have in charge of the representation process.

We have several hundred furloughed USair. A few DAL left, several former TWA and tons of regional pilots amongst others. All of us have seen the bad side of what unionization can do but because of current pay scales, recall rights and better benefits anywhere else we have also seen the benefit. Unfortunately you are playing catch up for what barger and the rest of jetblue management have done to this pilot group over the years. I get your concerns, trust me I get them, but the reality is the union structure at ALPA has changed for the better while the management structure at Jetblue has changed for the worse.

Look at the current silo structure, PVC and committees. While not effective you have seen a group that has done its very best to work with a robber baron style management group. The pilot group has had enough and hence the union vote. The pilot group is also knowledgeable enough to know you still have to work with management. This time, however, it will be in a CBA environment where both sides are on equal footing yet opposite sides of the table.

This is why we need your vote.

Here's a link to the ongoing Air Wisconsin ALPA negotiations. Ongoing since 2010.

Air Wisconsin Pilots Negotiation Web site

Just for clarification I have been at Jetblue for more than 3 years. Don't let the misinformation of APC.com misinform you about your knowledgeable resident P-3Bubba.

My mistake.

I'll still buy beers. (And if you're an EP-3 guy, I'll buy top-shelf shots… I owe them a couple).

Legacies went into BK because of the business model, not the employee pay.

Wrong, I was mainline management during the bankruptcy era, the legacies went bankrupt because of the pension program. They had to get their employee costs in line with the likes of SWA, and the Jetblue start-up for example.

Scope was sold to try and save the pension, it failed miserably.