28 Years Ago
 

This date, 28 years ago, was one of great significance.

I remember where I was.

Here it is:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1...on-strike-date

What they did should never be forgotten.

I had a conversation with a CAL pilot the other day about the strike and the different treatment of scabs at CAL vs UAL. He tells me that there are many reasons for this. One of the reasons is that the CAL strike lasted over two years vs our 29 day strike. He tells me that many pilots crossed very late in the game due to the many different reasons and that those guys are some what looked at with less animosity. One CAL striker that overheard this stood up and said,
"It only takes on day to become a scab, one day and that the day you crossed. Be it on day one or day 654 of the strike period."Then he went on to call the pilot that I was talking to a scab right to his face. The guy I was talking to had a 25 year ALPA pin on his tie so I assumed he was a good guy. Boy was I wrong.

Our brothers in blue need to remember the critical piece of information that Lee just highlighted. CAL scabs (with the exception of the EAL scabs inherited in 1997 as part of an order and award, iirc) are MIGS (if they choose to be) and can be festooned with all sortsa ALPA lanyards, stickers, pins, and various other sundry pieces of flair. "Eye-to-tie" does not work as an easy pedigree check for the senior CAL pilots. I counted one in LAX last month that had 7 various ALPA accoutrements on his person.

To all the pilots who walked the line.......FOR ME........I say "Thank You"

I walked the EAL line when I was 17 years old and a High School Senior....I walked it with my south Florida neighbors/pilots. (rEAL guys)

I am shocked at recent developments with my own airline career. The entitlement crowd of CAL 2005-2008 hires who are more then willing to walk over the backs of ALPA brothers. I wear a 20 year ALPA pin and am ashamed at pilots on BOTH sides of this nightmare.

We all need to look in the mirror and really think about what we are looking at.

I heard a story recently from a CAL Capt about his F/O he was flying with after his IOE.. This FO made it clear that he was going to give him "the real IOE" and let him know how it is done from the right seat. Was this F/O a 20 year veteran? No....rather another self entitled "gimme-gimme-gimme" 2005 hire at CAL.

My old man made one statement that really rings out to this day.

"I am not giving you this career as I received it in 1965---I am sorry the field I am letting you grow the crop in will not yield anything worth selling"

Sadly this career has been sliding backwards since the early 80's if not sooner than that. We only have ourselves to blame.

Where is the Unity? Where is my Union?

And the ONLY guys who act this way wear a black uniform?

Maybe you are propagating all this by insinuating that the boys in blue are ALL true pilot advocates.

We both have our scabs. We both have our misfits. The holier than thou attitude should probably be left at the door.

My father received this career in 1953 at Pan Am, and felt the same way as your father when I became a pilot. You want to talk tragedy, we can compare stories over a beer sometime.

The list will be mashed together by 3 wise men. We have no further input as line pilots. We will all find something to complain about when it's done, if not for us, then for those on our respective teams.

I think if you were to average out the 2 lists you would have pretty good insight as to where this is going to end up. If you don't like the sound of that, then you will probably end up disappointed.

Feel free to jump in and pick apart the pieces of this post without considering it as a whole.

Just my 2 cents.

The market determines everything. Once regulation was gone, it sought equilibrium.

Adapt and move on...or continue wondering what happened 35 years later.

Do you have an example of why you are "ashamed" of the LUAL pilots? Or, just THAT example.

You want to blame the attitudes promoted by the cal pilots as market forces. Give us a break - the cal culture was formulated with a scab mentally. ALPA and UAL MEC did more in the last 2 years to move you past that and the self-serving attitudes. The "United Culture" has arrived and it will not tolerate past practices by and against the cal pilots to be used to formulate our group moving forward.