AerisArmis

That would be about a size 12 hat, I'd say.

MaydayMark

Just to be fair ... WR did do a good job coordinating the picketing events and FDX ALPA did ask us to wear/beg/borrow/steal hats. WR was sort of the "donated spare hat for the picketers" POC.

Cargo Pirate

I would give pretty heavy odds that WR has logged more time volunteering on our behalf than most of you wankers have logged in a purple jet.
Unity wins an agreement, not ****ing and moaning.

av8rmike

I'll take that bet, buddy, with the exception being I'll compare my volunteer time with his 'volunteer' time. I was never compensated a thin dime for all my Union service, while Mr. 98 CHs/month has fared pretty damm well over the last couple of years. Must be rough going on all those junkets to Vegas and New Zealand, too... I volunteered to better things for my peers, not to use it as a resume builder to get a paid job. WR and DW were directly responsible for me not continuing to serve because I vehemently disagreed with their assertion that the FDA LOA was a good thing for the crew force. Who was proven right on that one?

He gave us a 'we feel your pain and we're taking a paycut, too' email last January, but never offered any details. My experience with him has been "lots of foam, little beer". If he really wanted to keep helping, there are tons of opportunities for him to serve our locals as an UNPAID volunteer.

It goes down a little rough that now he's been given the boot from our MEC, he slimes into a National job. That job WOULD NOT have been offered if he had managed to win the election. This is some kind of consolation prize Prater is offering and I for one don't see how he got it. He is not the most unqualified individual for that job, but he's pretty close. As I said earlier, I know of several people who have service in both the military AND on Mil Affairs Committees and they would be a natural choice for this position. You want to defend him, do so with facts rather than made up magical numbers and insults.

FDX28

So how do you think our unity is right now? People don't trust our own union, we have guys that fly 140hrs a month while others fly 55, a soon to be former MEC chair that bid a plane that he "told" others not to bid, a crappy LOA, and the list could go on. Sure it could be worse, but it seems as though you're drinking the DW Kool-aid. Our MEC has us in a terrible place to start 2010 talks...

If WR only volunteered to help others, you'd have a point. But the reality is, he volunteered to help one person- him. It got him to his ALPA national job. Someone who volunteers also flys the line, something he hasn't done in some time.

MaydayMark

Thanks for pointing that out, I feel much better now. I'll go back to bed and pretend I never read that ...

yeah right

Mike,

We have disagreed on at least one issue here (just 1 actually). I'll accept that I may have been a bit off center on that argument. In this issue I agree with you 100%. Respect is earned. He hasn't earned mine. I was in his block and he reminded me a bit of a puppet.

Cheers,
Y

fecav8r

Hey, who do I see to get those former mgmt good deals????

CurtissRobin

“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”
Sydney Harris

I would like to propose an alternative view to that generally held on this thread. First I must present a disclaimer that I am not a union rep, in management, or over sixty. I am not even 100% sure that I work for the same airline as others on this forum. Nor do I know the individuals referred to in any social way.

However, with that being said, I do know that both of them have held one of the most difficult jobs that any employee or manager can hold. From everything I have heard, they discharged those duties well enough to negotiate an agreement between the company and the pilots that resulted in our first ALPA contract. I for one am proud and thankful to them and the company for finally hammering out an agreement that literally was the culmination of over ten years of work and five representational elections.

There have been many difficult and divisive issues facing us. It is not a mortal sin for the MEC to agree to what the negotiating committee thinks is the best deal they can get, given a reasonable effort. Actually, it is the responsible thing to do. It may be a mistake, but to say that approving the existing LOA was totally wrong is making several assumptions as to what would have happened if it had not been approved. I do know that there are going to be two new FDA’s opening up and pilots will be going there to fly airplanes. I am confident FDA issues will be major topics at the upcoming negotiations and hopefully progress will be made.

The next issue is one that I don’t completely understand: the 777 bid. This is the message I received from my block rep before the last 777 bid closed.

“In this vein, we as your Council Officers would like to make it clear that we have no hidden agendas, and no one should read between the lines.
Please be sure that you bid whatever domicile, aircraft or seat that will meet your personal needs both financially and/or quality of life. If you still have contract questions that effect your bidding, please contact Contract Enforcement at [email protected].”
To cut directly to the point, some pilots think the union has given them a wink-and-a-nod to not bid the 777. Please do not make this mistake. Such a belief is in error. Let us make it patently clear: “Bid what you want to fly.”

Many of you want to know what the intent of a particular passage of the contract is and use that as a way to interpret it. I am pretty sure that the intent of the contract when new airplanes are introduced is to smoothly bring them into the system and have pilots ready to fly them. I think historically that many (perhaps most, in the old days when planes didn’t last as long) were introduced between contracts like ours.

The third issue is the barbeques that our representatives have attended as part of our national and international union affiliation. If I am not mistaken, one of the big issues that arose when the pilots were considering joining ALPA was that we had to have a say in the national agenda and in the politics of ALPA. We didn’t want “other airline” pilots to have all the voice. This was very important to a lot of our pilots. I say let our representatives go to their weenie roasts in peace. What do you think would happen to any influence we might have if we decided not to go? Or to be silent when we are invited to speak. Besides, traveling halfway around the world to get a free meal is not all it is cracked up to be.

I should probably stop now before I alienate the rest of you. But one last thing: I am glad one of our guys got a job at National and I think he has earned it.

“No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up”
Lily Tomlin

MEMFO4Ever

Can you start paying my 2% too?