AerisArmis

Stop the calls, we have a winner!

Sideshow Bob

On the surface the idea does have its virtues. Imagine IF one of the groups actually managed to get released from mediation AND made it through the 30 day cooling off AND got released into self-help without a PEB, AND a large majority of the other group didn't show up for work either. In other words, while it sounds good the planets would likely never align. The other downside is that UPS and Fed Ex combined have a huge percentage of the GDP in their systems at any given time and that would increase the likelihood that the government (regardless of which party has the executive branch) would shut down anything resembling a legitimate (never mind maverick) job action, perhaps even doing a Hoffa on the leadership.

Beyond that, we are (beyond the basic class and craft) very different pilot groups with very different luggage. I've been a member of four different pilot unions over the years, and they all had their warts. All things considered, IPA has overall had the best combination of unity, leadership and effectiveness for me as compared to the others (including ALPA). But as someone pointed out, it has more to do with the leadership than the stationary.

PicklePausePull

I fail to see just what is this "expertise from ALPA." They didn't research many of the quality of life issues on our behalf in this contract, nor did they use their "expertise" to research FDA issues.

The union membership is the problem when they repeatedly accept substandard results at premium rates!

Busboy

Why would you say that? The MEC and negotiating committee knew exactly what was in store, as far as our scheduling section goes. They actually directed the SIG group(by letter) to not hold up bid packs for issues such as: city-purity, D/H commonality and turning up the optimizer.

I guess the idea was...That we still had the SIG's dispute process. The only problem is, we don't have a pilot group that stands behind the SIG's efforts. So, changing the name of our union is going to solve our problem? I don't think so. And, I'm also sure that just changing our leadership will not solve our problems.

Why? Because we'll have the same membership. We can't change that. But, we sure as hell better change our behavior, if we expect to get anything out of our next contract negotiations.

rjlavender

Finally, we really have a winner! From a 2004 article I wrote for the FedEx pilots:

Labor remains in a death spiral, and its house needs a top-to-bottom overhaul if it's going to survive.*

*"Can This Man Save Labor," Business Week , Sep. 13, 2004, pg. 80

These are the words of Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest and fastest-growing union.

There are a lot of very good people working on behalf of their fellow pilots at FedEx and other carriers. However, while they are doing their work, ALPA is in a strategic free-fall right along with other traditional unions. By all reasonable standards, the money that is being spent on dues is prolonging the suffering. In my opinion, not only are pilots not getting what they pay for, they are contributing to the decline.

There should be no mistake about it, "ALPA" is merely a convenient whipping boy term for me; more directly, our problems are the product of poor leaders who love their positions more than principle, and poor followers who fear embarrassing themselves by breaking with the poor leaders.

Hey gang, the goofiness that you have seen at FedEx recently has been going on long before your time at every carrier. It has accelerated in the last 10 years as pilots have, along with Labor in general, lost nearly all leverage as a result of relying on "tradition" for solutions.

ALPA was not able to protect even one pension from substantial damage. Does anyone seriously think it will be able to protect your pension when its your turn in the barrel just because one of your bulletin board friends got elected to LEC? Come on, you just gave away some of your most important work rules for no visible reason. What are you thinking and what does this tell you? This is starting to get humorous. You should be abandoning the ALPA "mentality" like rats off a sinking ship, yet you are sitting around moaning about someone flying a disputed pairing. The reasonable man would have to say that you got bigger fish to fry.

Per Mr. Stern's comment above, Labor's problems, including those of the pilots, are strategic and the system requires massive, bone-crunching reengineering before things will get better. May the overhaul begin...and begin soon.

Bob

Busboy

OK...Who farted?

PastV1

For Runner and those that might like this at face value....

Talk with some of the UPS guys about problems they had during their negotiations. It wasn't all great with the MEC type guys, the negotiators, and the crew force.....

IPA is exactly who the UPS guys voted in. Not anything else...Oh, other than their resolve!

Of which ours was pretty good till recently!

Past...

fecav8r

Then what difference does it make what Union is on the property?

Busboy

That and their 210,000+ UPS union brothers, called the Teamsters.

md11phlyer

Might want to check your facts on that one.