captexpress

Not to sound cryptic or anything, but I would prefer to leave the name of this individual out of this post, but I seem to recall that quite some time ago, a very courageous young man attempted to stand up and raise the BS flag when he realized that something within his Negotiating Team had gone terribly wrong and for reasons unknown, his President and the rest of his Board stood idly by and let it happen. In his passion to set things straight and to call attention to the problem, he did a few things that ultimately caused him to step down. To his credit, the man stood steadfast to his principles despite a very severe hazing from his fellow pilots and........ despite not selling out his President, that same President rewarded his loyalty by hanging him out to dry......rubber stamped by the rest of the board, save one who made a halfhearted plea on his behalf.

Here is the amazing part. Despite being encouraged by some of his closest confidants to just come out and declare why he had done what he did, he chose to take the blame fully, avoiding further embarrassment for his fellow Board members and stepped down. He could have said, "What I did and how I did it may have been wrong, but the reason I did was right", but he took the fall. IMHO, he was one of the few who stood fast to his principles and to his election mandate. This Administration was elected for change. It promised a package of transparency and inclusion, but the package was never delivered. One man recognized it early on, spoke out and paid the price. Sad part is, now all of you may pay the price if you accept this TA.

Just Say No. The sun will rise the next day.

Before closing, ask yourself these questions. Remember just a few months back when your negotiating team was scolded by the Mediator and sent home on indefinite recess? What changed? Was the timing of the Postal agreement and the call back coincidental? I wonder what performance clauses were associated with that agreement?

You have more leverage than you know and you deserve better. If you like the agreement vote yes, if not, vote no. Voting no because you have been frightened by your politically embattled President is not a sound reason. Oh and the PEB threat......Puh-leez. I would expect threats to come from my company's management, not my union.

BoynamedSue

interesting post. i'm sure many of the APC family have no idea what you are talking about or only know part of the story. anyway...

i am always cautious of those trying to sell their point of view- for or against. enjoyed the read but i will decide my own vote.

sue

Pilot7576

Captexpress...

Are you referring to FF??? The same guy who wrote FU on a federal labor document? You call that being courageous. Frankly, I was embarassed when this happened; such childish behavior should not be applauded by you and others because you like his message and dislike the eb.

There are no black helicopters circling now. If you like the ta, vote yes; if you don't vote no. Believe me, the masons and opus dei won't come after you either way. If, however, you're waiting for BM to come save the day, remember it's his contract (envy of the industry) that you're living under right now. There is no magic formula or white knight that will get us a better ta. Talk to some of the clueless ones who picked up opentime to the amount of 71000 hrs last year and accepted jas when they know it was harmful to unity. Ask why they couldn't step away from the trough if only for a few months. It's very easy to vote 99% in a strike vote; the demonstration of that resolve was lacking by this group.

JMO

Pilot7576

captexpress

Precisely my point and I hope I didn't come across otherwise. Everyone should make up their own minds based on the merits of the TA, devoid of fear and threats from their Union....otherwise, why even bother with a vote in the first place? My comments really were in response to the fact that I haven't heard anyone state that they would vote for the agreement based on it's merits....more like a resignation that it would be more painful to delay further which, IMHO, is a specious argument when you consider the history of this effort and the players involved.

captexpress

No more embarrassing than the President crossing a picket line and flying on a struck carrier, or risking taking the profession two steps backward by mishandling the Captains Authority Issue by inclusion of a Jump Seat Matrix,...or making really naive and dangerous statements linking progress at the table with "the sky will go black with"....well, the list goes on, just depends on your perspective I suppose. All I meant to say was that obviously the gentlemen in question made an error, but he did so for a decent reason and despite the pressure, never turned on his team, despite the fact that they turned on him. He took his lumps publicly and did the right thing, which is more than either of us can say about the other players in this story. To prove the point, two of the Neg. team finally came out on their own and expressed their own concerns.

So you think if thing fails, that the President and the negotiating committee will step down in kind? I believe there has already been a bit of backpedaling on the "we don't have a plan B" scenario.

Besides, a labor leader who uses profanity......inconceivable! Yeah, it was the wrong time....but then again.......maybe not. Maybe that was the precise time to object, to raise the flag.........perhaps if some of the other players who came out later would have done so earlier, this whole thing might have played out differently.

NightFR8Pilot

When it came to light what FF had done what he did I was disappointed to say the least, after all I had voted for him and had high hopes for our EB. Moving forward to the present though it's starting to look like the goat (FF) actually is the one that will come out smelling like roses IMHO. With the debacle thats ensued under this leadership we would be lucky to once again have such an outstanding individual run for office. His unwavering support for the truth, backed up by facts, and his critical comparisons have completely exposed this EB/NC failure on this TA.

I cast my NO vote this morning as soon as I awoke. Now is not the time to capitulate to our unions pathetic attempt to scare us into accepting this utter disgrace of a TA.

UPSDISPATCHER

From my seat in the stands, and it is nothing more than that, the score is tied and the game is not over. If you are satisfied with the TA and feel you are voting for what you deserve, then do it. If you feel your TA is not up to par (I will not step into the EB bashing or express an opinion for that matter) then don't give up. Right now, from an outsider's perspective, not enough light is being cast on what the IPA's advantages are due to what happened internally. Look at our short term growth opportunities, i.e. Asia, USPS, and aircraft aquisitions. Our stock just took the biggest dive since going public (beads of sweat roll off the brow). These postal contracts, for both us and FredEx, are not coincidental. Will you win over public sympathy? No. Will a huge company give a few more pennies to secure their future investments and expand their markets? You bet. Again, this is from the stands. Brown NEEDS this contract closed now. I'm confident our pilots will do what's best.

IPAMD11FO

Seems to me someone pointed out that FF's line count was off by almost 10%, a number he himself does not dispute. I'm not trying to badmouth FF here. He is a bright guy, but just because he says something does not make it accurate or true.

Do your own homework and vote accordingly.

Pilot7576

UPSDISPATCHER...

Reading the news today, federal sewed up the mail contract for the forseeable future...So much for usps growth, ups mgmt probably didn't see that one coming.

JMO

Pilot7576

767pilot

You think that was the whole mail contract, or just a part of it? I thought it was going to have to be rebid. Isn't haliburton the only one that gets no bid contracts from mr. bush?