nightfreight

Jakal,

If you call disregarding the union membership's opinion on Age 60 and retro "a difference of opinion", then you are one forgiving soul. They have completely lost my trust, I don't want to listen to their excuses, or care to hear about their new and improved listening skills. They have failed the membership, I have no idea what their intentions were. I do know that they went on their own and turned their backs on us.

The only think I want to see from them is their resignations. If they want to do the "right thing" they should step down. End of story...

AFW_MD11

What about those of us in ANC/SFS/LAX (and/or commuters, and/or actually on the road working) who can't attend?

How will we become informed? by reading APC posts and getting all the personal spin everyone wants to put on the info?

Is there no mechanism in the 21st Century at the all-powerfull ALPA HQ to get any "official" words out to the membership - quickly?

What does the MEC say about getting those words out to ALL the membership? not just the "lucky" ones who happen to live in MEM?

I don't really think they care if everyone is informed, nor do they want us to be informed.

There is no evidence that they are even making ANY effort to communicate AT ALL - let alone do a better job of it than in the past.

just my 2 cents - what do I know though - I'm a mushroom up in ANC who gets most of my "facts" off APC.....how sad is that?

Laughing_Jakal

Listen, I think that there ought to be some sort of secure video or something....

NightFreight and you can look up my previous posts....I have not held my tongue when I thought the representation and communication was substandard.

As far as evidence they are making ANY effort, I can tell you that DW came to a place and stayed 4 hours taking shots in the face. You can argue that it was a friendly, low turn out crowd....but some was not so friendly, and four blocks were invited to show up.

Unless you think I'm lying or dillusional, I am telling you there is evidence they are trying to communicate and stay in touch. Those that aren't willing to listen because of past sins the MEC commited, well then, there is evidence that anything that's done as recompense won't be sufficient.

Perhaps DW can slide down a big waterslide like that Televangelist did a few years back.....he can sit on a chair and we can take turns throwing turds at a target that triggers the drop down the chute. We could make it a fund raiser for our poverty wages FDA guys.......

If the only thing that will make you happy is for them to step down, that will prove to be a disappointing and non-pragmatic gambit.

I won't get my feelings hurt if you don't agree with my assessment. I am also not going to bend you to my current train of thought....My only dog in this fight is finding out a way we can stop our current rate of descent and start a little climb. I don't like the unusual attitude we've gotten ourselves into......but it is in our best interest to "recover".

Maybe, Sleepy will read this and suggest they make a road trip to ANC....Subic is out tho....we all know the Subic guys $uck and deserve anything they get.....most can't come back to the states anyway!

nightfreight

Jakal,

I certainly respect your opinion. Your rational is valid, however, I don't trust these guys as far as I can throw them. Fool me once,...

As far as throwing turds, I think that is an outstanding idea! It would be a great fundraiser and a sure way to get out a big audience.

If enough of us want new leadership, it will happen. New block reps have been elected, and hopefully all of the old regime will be replaced. It will take time, but in the end, we will all be much better off. I am optimistic that this will happen. If it doesn't, we can still toss turds...

Laughing_Jakal

Listen,

That may be unlikely with the level of participation at LEC meetings.....so...people will have to go to the meetings...if for any other reason than to vote.....while there....you may hear something that will negate the need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.....

Maybe not...

A coke addict with platinum hair once sang a song like this:

"If you can't be ....with the one you love, honey.....love the one you're with......do do do do do do, dodo"

Of course, she was doing drugs at the time.

It's late, I don't want to pick a fight or argue.....gonna work on the house tomorrow, work on the boat a little...enjoy vacation......talk amongst yourselves....As much as I get worked up about this stuff....the world ain't gonna stop spinning and throw us off into space anytime soon.
Even if FH's shoulder feels better.

AFW_MD11

I believe you. I just think the effort is minimal at best:

1. last minute hub turn meeting - and no "after action report" sent out to the membership - no email summary, no detailed minutes, NUTTIN'

2. invites to meetings in MEM (that you attended) and the big week of more meetings in MEM next week - with no emails/minutes/summary, etc. ever sent to the membership unable to attend.

The only effort I've seen is - "let's call a short-notice meeting, invite a select few individuals, and then put out NO official ANYTHING after the meeting to tell everyone who wasn't invited/couldn't come what we talked about."......"sorry for those of you who couldn't attend, I guess if you'd have wanted to know what we talked about, you would have made the effort to show up in person"

VERY weak effort......but not zero effort - granted. I stand corrected.

Instead, we get an email after the hub meeting that mentions NOTHING about what was discussed - NOTHING.

That would be a very simple, very inexpensive, totally do-able FIRST step at improving information flow - why don't we already do this?

I can have a secure phone and/or video and/or text conversation with anyone in the world over the internet with Skype - FOR FREE!!

Can't our union, in the 21st century, spend a minimal amount of our dues money on an internet service to securely broadcast all these "secret" meetings that no one can write down what was said at?

It's truly pathetic.

PicklePausePull

Interesting perspective. My Grandmother used to say, "It's a dirty bird that craps in its own nest."

I think most men would kick her arse out on the street!

fdx727pilot

Don't you guys have your own LEC? Why aren't you screaming at your block rep?

FlybyKnite

LJ,

OK, no pitchforks but I will pull out a small meatfork.

It was stated in the Nov07 MEC minutes that this meeting would occur in January. A paltry turnout is to be expected when the meeting receives little advance publicity (Spec Msg Line 7Jan- 6days!) and is scheduled on a Sunday afternoon-- most Sunday outbound FDX jumpseats show between 2&4PM w/None on Mondays. Coming to MEM is always inconvenient, but the induced pain should be minimized in any case as a partial inducement-- light refreshments are not enough.

DW's big thing is to operate things as a business. I believe he has made significant business strides inside the MEC offices and in relationships with the company. Yet when interacting with the company on issues, it must always be remembered and leveraged that FDX is a [for-profit] business.

But the MEC seems to be under the same type illusion when it comes to dealing with the membership. Day-to-day business is one thing. But Sorry- most big items are not business, they are personal and very emotional issues. The only way to 'calm' the membership is to communicate enough details to allow for informed consent to take place. Admittedly, most members don't take the time to really become informed, preferring instead something like TonyC's Spoon [insert image here]. But the MEC and Block Rep communications I've received have not indicated much responsiveness beyond the Message Line minimums.

My past vote was ignored and my trust was betrayed- because it was 'inevitable', 'the right thing to do', etc etc. I don't expect an apology from the MEC because I'm beyond retro and the LOA. But they do need to get my trust back. And at the moment, that means they need to tell you and me (not 20 of us) how they are out in front of the airplane.

Let's start with: Why do the contents of these 'open' meetings have to be 'off the record'? I don't need direct quotes, I need the discussion points from today's meeting. Today's effort, while admirable, was mostly ineffective as illustrated by simple attendance figures unless it is followed-up by real communication. Do I really have to show up in-person to get direct, pertinent info?

As for issues on this forum, I know the union hates to put out anything that even remotely resembles an interpretation of the CBA for fear of being locked into an "Intent Clause" again. But, it sure would be nice if they could find some way to color-code or connect the diverging dots and lines in the CBA so we could keep our hysterical, self-flagellation to a reasonable minimum.

FR8Hauler

We do scream. They don't seem to know anything either.