CAL EWR

My election website www.jaysonbaron.info under the Flight Pay Loss Tab has been updated with the following.



Jayson Baron has written a check to ALPA for $6,414.11 and it was mailed to Randy Hodge at the CAL MEC office on Thursday October 16, 2008.



October 16, 2008

Captain Hodge,

It is you, sir, who is, unfortunately, grossly mis-representing the truth. You, sir, have stone walled me, and I have e-mail evidence plus phone records to back this statement up. You mentioned to me a week or so ago, not the other way around, that you were advised by legal counsel that there is an election going on and, therefore, we could not resolve this matter at this time. My response to you was that this wasn't even remotely an election issue when I contacted you in May via e-mail attempting to resolve the issue. Further, this wasn't an election issue in July when I responded to your very late e-mail response to my May email. To date you have failed to answer my July email. Per Clay Warner of ALPA National this isn't an election issue

I am the one who has taken it upon myself to contact ALPA Vice President Captain Bill Couette and ALPA Attorney Clay Warner (two times in the last week) trying to resolve this flight pay loss issue because of your dereliction of duty on this entire fiasco. Your failure to respond to my phone calls is completely unprofessional.

It has come to my attention though this situation that the Good Ole Boys club at CAL ALPA negotiates special deals for certain pilots to repay flight pay loss obligation by vacation sell backs and or flying back while other pilots are simply just plain ignored by their MEC when attempting to make good on their flight pay loss obligations.

If you had responded to my phone call of last week, you would have heard from me my intention to establish a $1,000 dollar-a-month repayment plan to ALPA commencing immediately. I had discussed this issue with Clay Warner twice and Kate Malone (Kate actually returns my calls) and both of them felt this repayment plan was fair and reasonable to both the Association and me.

Although I can't afford to do so at this time, and since you have not even picked up the phone to call me back since last week to resolve this issue, I am writing a check today to ALPA for $6,414.11. As you are aware, I have never filled out an ALPA expense report. You made an offer in the past to waive the normal dead line for filing an ALPA expense report in regards to the Wall Street event of March 2008, and I am going to hold you to that offer to allow me to recover my significant out-of-pocket expenses which I paid in preparation for the Wall Street event. Please provide me with an explanation of how to file an ALPA expense report for this period.

Let your actions be guided accordingly,



Jayson Baron



As Continental pilots, we find ourselves at a critical juncture. If we want a viable contract with major increases in pay, retirement, insurance benefits, quality of life, and scope language, we need a drastic change in our current direction.

The road map to change starts with electing EWR representatives who have the integrity, intelligence, dedication, drive, stamina, and ability to force a major change in the direction of the Continental Master Executive Council (MEC). The team to make this change is Jayson Baron (CA Representative) and Tara Cook (First Officer Representative) and Kaye Riggs (Secretary/Treasurer)

www.jaysonbaron.info
www.taracook.info
www.kayeriggs.info

Skybo

Jayson,
Thank you for your payment, if you actually pay it. Are you doing this out your sense of duty and what is the right thing to do? Or are you trying to buy the election? Why did it take you so long for you to write a check when that was the suggestion by Mr. Hodge months ago? Why do you always end your messages with the phrase, "let your actions be guided accordingly"? Sounds insecure to me.

CAL EWR

I am a true trade unionists. That means I put the needs or my fellow union brothers and sisters ahead of my personal needs or wishes.

When I resigned from the SPSC last May, I wrote a letter to CAL ALPA MEC Secretary Treasurer Randy Hodge informing him of my sincere attempt to fly back of owed flight pay loss obligation. When I wrote that letter I honestly believed the fly back option was a viable way for me to reimburse the union for my flight pay loss obligations.

At that point last May I was 50/50 at best in deciding whether or not to run for EWR LEC 170 CA Rep in October.

I fully intended on paying back my obligations in May and that decision was regardless of any possible run for the EWR CA Representative.

My final comments on this issue and then I am moving on. During my phone calls to ALPA attorney Clay Warner I was informed that a special deal was negotiated by Jay Pierce on behalf of several pilots who owed considerable funds from the Contract 02 FPL debacle. Clay told me in that deal these select pilots could sell back vacation and possibly fly back as viable options to resolve their flight pay loss obligations. He even went so far to say that Tom Stivila was really working with them on these creative issues. He asked if I knew Tom and if Tom liked me. I said nothing, and I think he figured out that I Tom and I hate each others guts (I am being kind).

Again being in a union means equal pay for equal work. I also interpret that to mean equal options for flight pay loss repayment for all pilots not just those that are well liked by the Good Ole Boys Club. If I am elected I plan on changing this policy to one that is fair to everyone.

PS. Check sent via certified mail on October 16th 2008.

Skybo

So you would like the same deal as those who violated APLA CBL's? I am wondering...would you would have cut a check if you weren't running for office? I highly doubt it. You have single handedly placed yourself in an elite group of those of the past. If elected, you want to change the policy for trip loss payback? Why are you publicizing your payment? This is not a badge of honor . Need I remind you that if you had fulfilled your obligation instead of walking out, we wouldn't be discussing this. This is a major issue of character and integrity. Your true colors have shown through. You say you are putting the needs of your fellow union brothers and sisters ahead of your own personal needs or wishes? In your case, you put your own personal selfish needs ahead of the rest of us. You are not a "true trade unionist", whatever that is. Thanks Jayson for you hollow support and payment.

gufusu

Yes, he is very glib!

CAL EWR

Skybo and gufusu,

What did you guys think of Bob Lombardo's blast mail this week?

ewrbasedpilot

I find it rather interesting that Jayson payed back his FPL in full with a certified check, when we have other members who owed considerably MORE, that have yet to fulfill their obligations and were cut a real "sweatheart" deal. Seems a bit hypocritical to me that we have "selective payback methods" for some and "pay it back now or we'll run you into the ground" for others. Talk about fair................

EWRflyr

Jayson,

At this point I am leaning towards voting for you. As you can see from this "Union" section of the forum, I posted Mister Lombardo's "campaign" e-mail to the council in hopes he or his co-horts would actually take the time to elaborate on their candidacies. To date, not one of them or their supporters has posted a response to my thread giving any information on why either of these three "gentlemen" would be qualified or viable candidates for the offices they seek. Granted they may not be members of this forum, but at the same time I have yet to see anything posted anywhere in the crew rooms about their desire to be elected. The only communication I have seen from any of them is the "attack" e-mail sent out as "campaign" literature.

So in response to you, I would hope that ALL pilots see Lombardo's e-mail as distasteful. If anyone votes for that team based solely on the rhetoric used in that blastmail, then all of us will be getting the shaft again. I cannot see how anyone would see that e-mail as a platform for reform within CALALPA. Attacking each other does nothing to further unity which is sorely lacking in the top 1/2 to 2/3 of this pilot group I find.

Would have been nice to receive a campaign e-mail from these three actually telling me and the rest of the EWR council what their visions and goals are for EWR 170, CALALPA, and ALPA National. At the very least, Jayson, I know where you and your running mates stand on the issues.

EWRflyr

Yes, his true colors have shown through: when our Sec/Tres has refused to work with him to set up a repayment plan THAT HAS BEEN AVAILABLE TO OTHER MEMBERS he finally paid it all in one lump sum. The question you should be asking is why did our CALALPA Sec/Tres not respond or drag his feet in setting up a repayment schedule? Did he not think that collecting this money was important for CALALPA as a whole? Or was this done punitively? So since May there has been no movement on this issue when $1,000 per month could have been collected and paid off by now at the blessing of ALPA staff attorneys, etc.

I think your questions are directed at the wrong person in this case. If you are so concerned about this money (YOUR MONEY) then why are you not asking Randy Hodge why he failed to start collecting this money in a timely manner? So who here is the "elite group of the past" you are talking about? Payment and repayment schedules are a fact of life in ALPA. To deny even ONE member the same courtesy that has been extended to others is unfair.

River6

ALPA like most unions quick to take your money, and never give you any representation. I give my company my time and they give me a paycheck. I give my union money and they go golfing and on fishing trips!