Floyd, I like what you wrote and agree with your sense of the solidarity idea. I do. but see this..

Cadetdrvr. My experience during C2000 and post-bk contract has been that the copilots with pins and stickers and strike preparedness pins were the more likely ones to not want to rock the boat or "inconvenience the passengers" as many told me. and i always asked about their strike preparedness pin and asked if they thought a strike was an inconvenience. never did get a good reply. I've had MANY pilots with pins all over tell me "there would never be another strike."
have a good savings account. have your monthly expenses low enough to survive. have another gameplan. lots of good folks walked away from CAL back in 83 and never came back. folks in 85 left the cockpit and were prepared but scared of never coming back.
when i see folks all jazzed up with plastic pins and stickers but arent prepared to fight the fight, I am not impressed. at all

 

I guess that's the difference between spending 20 years in the left seat vs the right.

In my time here, I have seen plenty of spineless types on the other side of the cockpit. You know, the guys who actually sign the release and are supposed to set the cockpit demeanor.

And please, do not take mistake my point to be about chest beating union issues only. But when a captain is too chicken to write up a known and serious defect out of fear of a phone call from a desk driver, you know exactly where he's going to stand when push comes to shove on all other issues as well.

To flip off the union when every little thing doesn't go your way strikes me as childish. It also says a lot about ones character and little about their opinion of shared sacrifice. There's a reason we make what we do. And its not benevolence from Willis. It has a lot to do with unity.

United we bargain. Divided we beg.

 

Pilot unity, or unity within any group is the ultimate leverage that is REQUIRED to drive results. Unity to a union is like nitrogen to a plant. It is required to not only survive but to thrive.

The key here is for union members to understand not only their role, but everyone's role:

1. Pilots: stay informed, stay unified on core issues. Never disagree or negotiate in public about core union issues.
2. Union: represent the interests of the profession to government to drive policy, negotiate, maintain and enforce labor agreements.
3. Government: maintain fair play in the industry and maintain desirable and achievable levels of safety.

If pilots are unified, they can assist the union in representing their goals, issues and concerns not only to management, but to the government as well.

ALPA has a unique dilemma in that it represents the interests of mainline and regional airline pilots sometimes on divergent paths. ALPA must decide that SCOPE enhancement for mainline carriers is in the long term best interests of the profession as a whole. Otherwise, it needs a separate structure for RALPA and a separate pot of money for those negotiations. I have long been a proponent for a Regional Airline Pilots Association.

The regional pilots and their union reps should come out publicly and support the enhancement of scope. The key here is do those pilots currently at the regionals (or aspiring to be there) wish to make 8 million dollars throughout their careers or 14 million dollars? The career is worth more in the long run if they are patient and support mainline pilot scope enhancement.

 

So everyone received a $20,000 signing bonus ?

 

You realize you are calling our military brothers and sisters who were carved out of this money "whiny biches"?

 

I think that is incorrect. I believe ALPA simply did not object to the company holding back the 5%. I don't believe ALPA instructed, nor had the power or leverage to instruct the company to hold back the 5%. The union certainly did not have the power to instruct the company to simply follow the law on USSERA, so I doubt it had the power to mandate the company hold back funds to anyone.

 

Let’s see if he has the balls to post his rant on the UAL pilot forum where his real name is displayed. There were too many “I’s” and “Me’s” in his original post, so my eyes started to glaze over.

 

Yes, I know. See my original reply to the post. Military pilot lawsuit.

 

No, you are not correct. It is ALPA policy now to hold back money in reserve for any potential lawsuits. Since the money is paid by the company it is held by the company until such time as the suits run their courses. Once they do, ALPA directs the remainder of the money minus any "redistribution" if any to be dispersed to the pilot.

The military lawsuits are about the UPA ratification signing bonus only. One side handled their portion of the signing bonus differently than the other side. As a result, the calculations of monies paid to military pilots were different between the two groups...not amounts per se but methodologies. The suits have nothing to do with any past post-9/11 concessionary treatment of any particular group of pilots and their retirement plans.

 

Read EwrFlyr's response and then if you still don't believe it, go to page 445 of our UPA and read LOA 24. Specifically, 3.C and 3.G. Hope this helps.