I disagree with your premise, not altogether but essentially disagree.

We were weakened, but it was the entire situation at that time.

*Ned losing control to Jacob Schorr.
*Jacob Schorr bringing in institutional investors (Oak Tree).
*Oak Tree taking over and removing Jacob as President.
*Oak Tree bringing in Ben Baldanza as President.
*Oak Tree promoting Ben Baldanza to President and CEO.
*Ben Baldanza firing (over the period of 12 months) every VP, manager and/or director from Mirimar.
*VP OP's Scotty J being one of those senior leaders who got fired for a reason that we'll likely never know, probably just because he wasn't Bens friend from USAir.
*Oak Tree/Ben Baldanza bringing in Jeff C to replace Scotty J.
*The MEC (all four of them) using this fresh slate as an opportunity to make gains for the pilot group.
*"Palace Coups" inside Mirimar as the remaining upper management tried to consolidate power after each of Ben's removals.
*Jeff C's decision to remove 9 senior DE's/Checkpilots from the training dept.
* A large portion of the remaining training dept banding together, hiring an attorney, and attempting to sue both SPA ALPA and Spirit to regain their friends tng dept positions.
************************************************** *
*Oak Trees DECISION TO BRING IN INDIGO PARTNERS AS THE MANAGING PARTNER AND CONTROLLING INTEREST IN SPIRIT AIRLINES.
************************************************** *
*Indigo taking all expenditure power/discretion away from Spirit personnel (even VP OPs Jeff C). All spending went through Indigo reps.
*Indigo bringing Ford and Harrison, the anti ALPA law firm to work against us.
*Spirit changing from MD80's to Airbii. (the big push for transition coinciding with Jeff C taking over the tng dept and that ensuing mess).
*Ben Baldanza implementing his business model (Caribbean Visiting Friends and Relatives) at Spirit Airlines.
*Bill Franke, Indigo Partners, implementing his ULCC model on Spirit Airlines and finally,
*The world wide economic melt down of 2007/2008

And those were just the external influences on the Spirit Pilot group.



If you really do care to discover the cause of our weakness, you'll have to determine what makes a group weak, and I'll leave it for later but groups don't become weak from the external.

Blaming one VP OPs for all our problems is short sighted at best.

www.voteSPA77.org

Bringing up JC, the "JC talk", is entirely intended to help bolster one team at the expense of the other in the current election cycle. As such, the 600 pilots who weren't here in 2006, 7 and 8 need to understand the situation so they can separate the wheat from the chaff.

Consider this, the "JC talk" surfaced in an attempt to undermine Graham.

www.voteSPA77.org

Its on the Spirit employee page, details of the discount. Its not a good discount, I still use the ATT discount I got with a regional I worked for 7 years ago, because it is better. Probably better to base your choice on what carrier has the better coverage in your area. Where I am at, ATT is the better coverage choice but I know Verizon is much better in other areas.

Cole Brantley is apparantly running for C77 Sec/Tres and claims to want honesty and transparancy. Check out the link where he makes this claim.

Brantley - Vote SPA 77

"I hope that each of you can see the benefit of showing this pilot group a level of honesty and transparency in our union that they have never seen before as we enter collective bargaining with an adversarial management as we seek our career advancement in 2015 and beyond."

Wow!

Now google "Cole Brantley NTSB" or go to this link to see how honest and transparant he really is in this NTSB report.

http://www.ntsb.gov/alj/O_n_O/docs/aviation/5122.PDF

According to the file. Apparantly he got a DUI, no big deal, it could have happened to many of us. Then he fails to report it to the Feds, which is not transparant, or honest and is just plain stupid. Then he fails to file a timely appeal which is irresponsible. Then he gives an untrue excuse as to why his report was untimely; more honesty and transparancy? Pathetic!

This alone should exclude this guy as representing Spirit Pilots. But let us go further.

If he did not disclose this to the company on his application, and I have no evidence one way or the other, if they find out, this would be grounds for termination. This could then be held over him and all of us if he is in ALPA leadership which could cause us all to pay for his lack of transparancy and honesty.

IMO even if he did disclose it to Spirit on his application there has got to be a better candidate to represent us.

Yeah. Obviously. But it a futile attempt. First, JC is long gone. Second, He was our boss, and also Graham's when he was an instructor. Trying to associate a VP/DO's incumbency with that of a subordinate's, working in the training department, is just completely ridiculous. Time to move forward and focus on the future. Graham is a great guy, and everyone agrees with that. I totally support his initiative to volunteer for the interim captain rep position as he'll lay the groundwork for the permanent elected rep taking over the March 2015 term. Andy is who I believe should be elected when that election cycle comes.

Vote SPA 77 - Home

...... In the best words of Gov R. Perry........Ooops!!!

Ha! You join APC to smear candidates. Second post here, just trolling to wage a negative campaign. So now, you go out to research a person's record. Dude, this "Axelrod" type of low-blows doesn't work. It's pathetic coming from a "fellow ALPA brother". Desperate and scared already? He proposes to open the books and this is what you do? Get a life man...Shame on you!
We've all made mistakes in life. Many of us have had problems and have moved forward with dignity, strength and courage. Who cares if someone has had a DUI, attended a HIMS program, filed bankruptcy, a failed relationship and a divorce, etc. Cole is a great guy! Smart and committed to helping the pilot group. He is also here for the long run and wants this to be his retirement workplace.
You're pathetic. A low class. Keep on doing this and you'll make the new Spirit pilots realize what type of people you are.

Vote SPA 77 - Home

Jesus do we really need a link to the 77 council website on every post in this thread? At what point does this thread get moved to the union section of APC?

I don't see anything wrong, after all it our union, our contract, our thread, our candidates. Here at least we can expose the good and the bad, although I don't share the full name use on this public forum.

I don't agree with full name use unless the poster chooses to disclose their identity. I do think the last 3 weeks have seen this issue been beat to death and this thread has degraded into the vocal minority waging a smear campaign against their foes. The amount of useful information being disseminated on this topic has reached the end of the road. I don't think theres anyone in council 77 who still wants to be informed that has not seen a clear "for and against" argument on these topics.