Today is Monday, September 21, 2012, and there is one item for your review.



Item 1: Council 170 LEC Meeting



A number of pilots have mentioned that my last Magenta Line editorial did not clearly enough state our reasoning for the closed agenda (again). I also left out some information about the recall process, which is included in today's message below.



First, let’s talk about LEC meeting requirements and why I continue to lock out the members from the meeting agenda.



Meeting Requirements:



The ALPA Constitution & Bylaws requires your LEC Officers to have, at a minimum, one meeting every four months which would total three meetings in a year. We have found that it’s very expensive to have meetings and more complicated than one might think to organize such as event. For example, we have to notify the members and find a meeting room which proves difficult at times in the Newark area. So in an effort to conserve resources, we haven’t had a meeting since May 21st. Being that I am now in violation of the Bylaws, I was forced to have another meeting in October. By scheduling this October meeting, we now won’t have to have another one until next year around February or so.

The effort to save our associations resources should not be underestimated and will continue to be a top priority of your LEC Officers.



Agenda Items and Your Business:



As some of you may remember, I sent out a meeting notice on April 10th for the May 21st meeting. A few of you were angry because you had member resolutions that you wanted to include and didn’t realize the meeting notice would be sent out, let alone know when the meeting would be, and most of you didn’t realize that I would “lock out” the agenda to prevent you from submitting any resolutions for the meeting.

So let’s talk about why I continue to “lock out” the meeting agenda: again, I’d have to say this falls into the saving resources category. If we allowed members to submit agenda items and include them on the meeting updates, it would prove to be unnecessarily time consuming. It would also cause many more members to attend the meetings and we’d have to get a bigger room and order more food as well.

Many of you have pointed out to Tara and me that other ALPA Councils have an average of 10 meetings a year and issue multiple meeting updates to include member resolutions that are submitted for a meeting. Well, we can’t control what other councils are doing, but we can control the costs to association from C 170, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.

As far as our next meeting on October 8th is concerned, you’ll see that I did include two resolutions, that if passed would require a recall ballot to go out to the membership. Although Tara and I were successful in excluding these from the previous meeting, ALPA National insisted they be included on the agenda for the October 8th meeting. We’ll talk about the reason for that below.

One of our Captains submitted an Article VIII resolution for me to be included on the meeting agenda before the meeting notice was sent out, but I didn’t feel it was in the spirit of how we do business in C 170 so I chose not to have it on the meeting notice. I also told this Captain that I would rule it out of order if he tried to floor it at the meeting. These types of political divisive tactics, that are the product of one or two angry individuals, do little more than to detract from our common interests and goals and limit our ability to do your business at your meeting. After all, this is your meeting and you don’t have many opportunities to do your business. I did however include the Article VIII resolution as an attachment to this Magenta Line, and I’m sure you’ll see why I’ll be ruling this out of order at the October 8th meeting.



Local Council Recall Process



Phase One:



Consideration for a recall of a local council officer or officers must be part of the agenda of a local council meeting (this is why it wasn’t allowed on the previous meeting notice. When the recall is placed on the advance agenda, each pilot may bring up to three proxies with them.



There are two ways for a recall to be placed on the agenda of a local council meeting.



First, any member in good standing can make a request to the local council chairman in writing to have the recall placed on the agenda of the next local council meeting. If the agenda for the meeting is already closed, then only with the chairman’s consent can the recall be added to the closed agenda. Without the chairman’s consent, the recall will be placed on the agenda of the next local council meeting after the meeting with the closed agenda. We were successful in delaying the required meeting while we were in consultation with National to see if we indeed had to put this on the agenda. Although Bill Couette (ALPA National Secretary/Treasurer) was pleased that we were able to save the association a lot of money by not having the required meetings, he did insist they be put on the October 8th meeting notice.



The second way to commence the recall process, is for members of the local council to call for a special local council meeting for the purpose of recall of one or more of the local council officers. This is accomplished by having a petition signed by at least 30% of the members in good standing of the local council, and this petition is then sent to the President of ALPA. After the petition is reviewed and all the signatures are deemed valid, the President will call for a special local council meeting for the purpose of a local council officer recall, to be held in short order. We actually prefer this solution because we know it’s just about impossible to garner the required signatures. And even if the signatures were obtained, it would take quite a long time to actually have the meeting. But most importantly, Tara and myself simply do not believe there are 30% of the members in our Council that don’t support us.



If, at either a regular local council meeting where the recall was placed on the agenda or at a special local council meeting called by the President of the Association, after the ballots are counted, and if the majority of the pilots vote in favor of a recall, the process moves on to phase two. If the majority of the pilots at the meeting vote against a recall, then the recall dies at the meeting.



Phase Two:



A recall ballot will be placed on ALPA’s BALLOT POINT election system for all pilots in the local council, for consideration of recall. If a majority of local council members in good standing who vote on BALLOT POINT vote to recall, the officer(s) will at that stage then be removed from office.



Having already prepared for a regular local council meeting with a recall added to the agenda, I am quite familiar with the process. First, the preparation for the meeting is significant. ALPA doesn’t prepare any ballots, so there is very wide discretion given to the local council chairman as to how he or she decides to proceed. Additionally, very little direction is given to the local council chairman as to how carry out the verification and balloting process. It’s up to the local council chairman to create and prepare the ballots and a process that meets all the requirements of ALPA’s somewhat wide overall direction. So as you can see, there is a lot we can do to manipulate this process and garner the support necessary to stay in office.



This wouldn’t be a big deal if EWR was a small council, but to prepare for a recall meeting where up to 500 or more pilots holding proxies might attend, the preparations are immense and very time consuming. I say 500, but as we all know it would only take about 40 pilots with a few proxies to show up to pass a resolution like this. 500 sounds more complex and may intimidate some from showing up.



At the local council meeting and after a considerable debate, the balloting process will begin.



First the local council chairman must pick a three member balloting committee which will certify the proxies. Again this gives me great latitude to make sure I get the right people on this committee. Once the proxies are certified we will have the vote. If someone requests a “recorded vote” then members will be listed on the meeting minutes with the number of proxies they voted and how they voted. So there’s no hiding on this vote when someone makes this request.



Tara, Tim and I have immense respect for the recall process and we understand that we work for all of you. The conundrum we face is whether to allow the wishes of a small handful of pilots to receive more weight than the wishes of almost 20 pilots. Last time we received a lot of negative feedback regarding the enormous waste of time and money created by the recall agenda request of one pilot, when it was clear that the recall would be overwhelmingly defeated. We have received the SAME FEEDBACK this time – at least 15 pilots have contacted us requesting that we do NOT waste more time and money.



Personally and selfishly, if it were just about Tara and me, then the answer to providing you with more meetings and more options to include your business on the meeting notices would clearly be yes. With all the pressure we are under 24/7 doing this job, we do not want a recall attempt - no matter how small - hanging over our heads. We would love nothing more than to get this behind us.



However, I know our pilots want significant information about the status of their contract, and the latest in this merger fiasco. Allowing what I believe to be a small number of pilots to take over the meeting with a very time-consuming recall process, would mean that the negotiating updates that the majority who attend the meeting want and need to learn about, would not occur. As you might have noticed, I have invited Captain Jay Pierce to speak to you at this upcoming meeting just like I did at the last one where we thought we could possibly have recall resolutions. I put him at the beginning of the meeting where Tara and I think he would do the most good. Captain Pierce is sure to have much to talk about during his appearance and will field all of your questions. This could take up considerable time and leave us very little time for other business, so please keep this in mind while you try and fit this meeting into your busy schedules.



Representing a very large council, the second largest in all of ALPA, is a difficult job under normal circumstances. Doing so under section six negotiations is even harder, and in a merger it’s often flat out crazy. Despite the incredible amount of time and energy involved, it’s an honor to serve all of you. This job is clearly the most difficult job I have ever undertaken in my entire life. I have given it everything I have, and I will continue to do so as long as I’m your Captain rep and council chairman. Contrary to some rumors on the line, I still have a lot of gas in the tank. I have committed to all of you that I will see this through the merger. I am doing so with severe hardships to my family life and my health. I will not willingly quit and I will fight any recall efforts to the best of my abilities. If, however, a majority of you ever decide I need to go, then I will respect the will of the majority of all EWR pilots.



In closing I want to say the following. Whether you think I am doing a good job or a very poor job, I don’t think anyone could effectively argue I am not working very hard on your behalf. I truly understand the emotion and extreme frustration all our pilots face today. I share those very same frustrations, but I also believe that if we all stand together just a little longer, we will finally secure the industry-leading JCBA we so richly deserve.



That is all for today, thank you.



Fraternally,


/s/

Airline Pilots Association, International

Continental Newark Captain Representative

Local Executive Council 170 Chairman