MEC Vicechairman regains his self respect
02-23-2012, 12:10 PM
#1
New Hire
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2012
Posts: 3
MEC Vicechairman regains his self respect
I received this and was asked to post it. I do so willingly and with the utmost respect for Brad. I have known him for over 10 years and I have always found him to be honest and fair. Anyone who tries to tell me he is lying had better have ironclad proof.
I know this will start something, I just hope that something is change for the better.
To My Fellow FedEx Pilots,
I have been torn over the last few days as to whether I should bring this message to the whole pilot group, but I am unable to maintain my silence because of the events of the last few months and what they portend for our future. I resigned my position last Wednesday morning because I could not stand to be associated any more with the incompetent and destructive operations of our negotiators and officers.
I cannot talk about the specifics of issues that have been discussed exclusively in executive session. If you want a full description of those issues, the burden lies with the current administration to admit to the full content of their work. If they won’t, you will have to judge as to why.
To begin with, the Negotiating Committee and the other two officers worked without MEC approval and proffered a 4A2b proposal to the company that I feel was contrary to pilot wishes and contrary to the values that should be held by any pilot representative. They ignored numerous attempts on my part to ensure the MEC was included before it was proffered, to allow your elected reps their proper place in the negotiating process. But instead, they put a proposal across the table that included the most amateurish provisions that I have seen proffered in a negotiation at FedEx. It was very disturbing. I am not talking about a comma being out of place, I am talking about ideas that don’t even have a place in a concessionary contract. How this did not rise to the level of personnel changes in the minds of the MEC at the time, I have no idea.
The final straw that moved me toward my resignation was when someone attempted to co-opt my opinion by portraying me as approving of this fatally flawed proposal, in spite of my repeated efforts to get the proposal brought back within the bounds of reason. I angrily quashed that attempt in front of the MEC. It didn’t take long after that for me to arrive at the inevitable conclusion that the danger of being associated with this leadership team wasn’t worth what they paid me.
This leadership decided on a negotiating strategy, without the approval of the MEC, that didn’t appear to me to be indicated in any way by pilot opinion or input. For an administration that uses the terms ‘transparency’ and ‘will of the pilots’ as much as they do, they seem to be disassociating from both.
The personnel involved with that proposal are not the right people for the job, be it the committee or the supervision. You might be told “everything is alright now” because the proposal might be corrected or pulled or reworked – whatever fix they come up with. The truth remains that they sent very destructive ideas across the table behind the MEC’s back and they are probably now scrambling to fix it behind the veil of executive session protection that prevents a description of the details.
That secrecy might be minimally justified if the MEC were working as fiduciaries and replacing the personnel responsible for this. But in lacking the will to act, the MEC as a body makes itself an accomplice in allowing the incompetence to remain veiled.
The MEC, because of political co-opting and stratification, has failed as a body to properly consider whether this leadership team should be retained. There are some reps who recognize the dangerous reality indicated by the inept 4A2b proposals, but there are too many other reps who believe friendship and loyalty trump failure when evaluating union work. I do not discount the effect that the communications from some reps may have had on public opinion recently, including MEC opinions and maybe even your own opinion. They may be indelicate, but they know the reality of the secrets. They are the canaries in the coal mine, and someone wants to kill them for chirping when there’s danger.
So let’s get into that issue. Politically speaking, the MEC Chairman has created an exceptionally tight good-old-boy network within this union. Many of the committee chairmen that he has appointed are very close personal friends. Not all, but many. They have on numerous occasions openly threatened the MEC with a mass exodus if the MEC attempts to take any corrective action regarding the leadership. Their threats are meant to strong-arm your reps into inaction, protecting incompetence like that which is hidden now and maintaining their flight-removal positions. This is destructive on many levels.
A number of MEC committees have gone from being professional, nonpolitical committees doing the work of the pilots to being a highly engaged political fraternity for the good-old-boy network. I have personally seen proof that a committee that has been brought together with your dues dollars is in communication with the leader of one of the (supposedly) ‘grassroots’ recalls going on presently in the LECs. I, like anyone who can recognize a duck from its quack, have a hard time accepting such situations as coincidence.
Actions like these corrupt the election process by manipulating it. Your current MEC leaders have learned much from politicians, including how to build a Chicago-style machine. They usurp pilot-based control of who is chosen to serve on the MEC by putting their small army of committee people out to sway public opinion. Be cognizant of who you are listening to. You should know whether or not they have a position in the good-old-boy network and if they receive any flight removal.
In the past, the independence of the pilots who voted mattered, because the unfettered judgment of the crew force was supposed to come through in elections, based on the performance of the union. It was a force for betterment. Now committees are used to aggressively push for specific political issues, viewpoints and candidates to sway the pilots’ judgment with coordinated politicking.
In the past, having committees interfering with representation elections was considered subversive and discouraged strongly. But there is no such discouragement now, mostly because the inappropriate behavior favors the good-old-boy network. That’s why it’s presently open season on your MEC - so that the Chicago-style machine can cull the dissent from the herd.
This team is hopelessly company-friendly. If what I am writing doesn't make you sit up and take notice, you have a good chance of waking up one day to a tentative agreement that looks like FedEx Labor Relations wrote it. Especially since many representatives’ friendships and loyalties with the chairman are so strong that they will likely prevent the removal of this team. I hope the members of the MEC can reassess their loyalties. In my mind, their loyalty is supposed to lay with the pilots who elected them, not their friends or the company. Unfortunately, that’s not what I’m seeing.
It’s quite likely I will be attacked as soon as this letter hits the street, but so it goes. When they tell you what a horrible person I am or that I’m lying, I ask you to consider one thing: I chose to resign as the FDX MEC Vice-Chairman at a time when I am medically NOQ. I left a job that pays 103 hours a month, whether I’m medically qualified or not, to return to the line and pull 70 hours a month from my sick bank as I work to get back to the line. If you think I made this choice just to be able to poke someone in the eye, you're wrong. The dirty politics and incompetence have simply made the difference in pay the price for self-respect.
Captain Brad Mahoney
Line Pilot
Brad Mahoney
[email protected]
I know this will start something, I just hope that something is change for the better.
To My Fellow FedEx Pilots,
I have been torn over the last few days as to whether I should bring this message to the whole pilot group, but I am unable to maintain my silence because of the events of the last few months and what they portend for our future. I resigned my position last Wednesday morning because I could not stand to be associated any more with the incompetent and destructive operations of our negotiators and officers.
I cannot talk about the specifics of issues that have been discussed exclusively in executive session. If you want a full description of those issues, the burden lies with the current administration to admit to the full content of their work. If they won’t, you will have to judge as to why.
To begin with, the Negotiating Committee and the other two officers worked without MEC approval and proffered a 4A2b proposal to the company that I feel was contrary to pilot wishes and contrary to the values that should be held by any pilot representative. They ignored numerous attempts on my part to ensure the MEC was included before it was proffered, to allow your elected reps their proper place in the negotiating process. But instead, they put a proposal across the table that included the most amateurish provisions that I have seen proffered in a negotiation at FedEx. It was very disturbing. I am not talking about a comma being out of place, I am talking about ideas that don’t even have a place in a concessionary contract. How this did not rise to the level of personnel changes in the minds of the MEC at the time, I have no idea.
The final straw that moved me toward my resignation was when someone attempted to co-opt my opinion by portraying me as approving of this fatally flawed proposal, in spite of my repeated efforts to get the proposal brought back within the bounds of reason. I angrily quashed that attempt in front of the MEC. It didn’t take long after that for me to arrive at the inevitable conclusion that the danger of being associated with this leadership team wasn’t worth what they paid me.
This leadership decided on a negotiating strategy, without the approval of the MEC, that didn’t appear to me to be indicated in any way by pilot opinion or input. For an administration that uses the terms ‘transparency’ and ‘will of the pilots’ as much as they do, they seem to be disassociating from both.
The personnel involved with that proposal are not the right people for the job, be it the committee or the supervision. You might be told “everything is alright now” because the proposal might be corrected or pulled or reworked – whatever fix they come up with. The truth remains that they sent very destructive ideas across the table behind the MEC’s back and they are probably now scrambling to fix it behind the veil of executive session protection that prevents a description of the details.
That secrecy might be minimally justified if the MEC were working as fiduciaries and replacing the personnel responsible for this. But in lacking the will to act, the MEC as a body makes itself an accomplice in allowing the incompetence to remain veiled.
The MEC, because of political co-opting and stratification, has failed as a body to properly consider whether this leadership team should be retained. There are some reps who recognize the dangerous reality indicated by the inept 4A2b proposals, but there are too many other reps who believe friendship and loyalty trump failure when evaluating union work. I do not discount the effect that the communications from some reps may have had on public opinion recently, including MEC opinions and maybe even your own opinion. They may be indelicate, but they know the reality of the secrets. They are the canaries in the coal mine, and someone wants to kill them for chirping when there’s danger.
So let’s get into that issue. Politically speaking, the MEC Chairman has created an exceptionally tight good-old-boy network within this union. Many of the committee chairmen that he has appointed are very close personal friends. Not all, but many. They have on numerous occasions openly threatened the MEC with a mass exodus if the MEC attempts to take any corrective action regarding the leadership. Their threats are meant to strong-arm your reps into inaction, protecting incompetence like that which is hidden now and maintaining their flight-removal positions. This is destructive on many levels.
A number of MEC committees have gone from being professional, nonpolitical committees doing the work of the pilots to being a highly engaged political fraternity for the good-old-boy network. I have personally seen proof that a committee that has been brought together with your dues dollars is in communication with the leader of one of the (supposedly) ‘grassroots’ recalls going on presently in the LECs. I, like anyone who can recognize a duck from its quack, have a hard time accepting such situations as coincidence.
Actions like these corrupt the election process by manipulating it. Your current MEC leaders have learned much from politicians, including how to build a Chicago-style machine. They usurp pilot-based control of who is chosen to serve on the MEC by putting their small army of committee people out to sway public opinion. Be cognizant of who you are listening to. You should know whether or not they have a position in the good-old-boy network and if they receive any flight removal.
In the past, the independence of the pilots who voted mattered, because the unfettered judgment of the crew force was supposed to come through in elections, based on the performance of the union. It was a force for betterment. Now committees are used to aggressively push for specific political issues, viewpoints and candidates to sway the pilots’ judgment with coordinated politicking.
In the past, having committees interfering with representation elections was considered subversive and discouraged strongly. But there is no such discouragement now, mostly because the inappropriate behavior favors the good-old-boy network. That’s why it’s presently open season on your MEC - so that the Chicago-style machine can cull the dissent from the herd.
This team is hopelessly company-friendly. If what I am writing doesn't make you sit up and take notice, you have a good chance of waking up one day to a tentative agreement that looks like FedEx Labor Relations wrote it. Especially since many representatives’ friendships and loyalties with the chairman are so strong that they will likely prevent the removal of this team. I hope the members of the MEC can reassess their loyalties. In my mind, their loyalty is supposed to lay with the pilots who elected them, not their friends or the company. Unfortunately, that’s not what I’m seeing.
It’s quite likely I will be attacked as soon as this letter hits the street, but so it goes. When they tell you what a horrible person I am or that I’m lying, I ask you to consider one thing: I chose to resign as the FDX MEC Vice-Chairman at a time when I am medically NOQ. I left a job that pays 103 hours a month, whether I’m medically qualified or not, to return to the line and pull 70 hours a month from my sick bank as I work to get back to the line. If you think I made this choice just to be able to poke someone in the eye, you're wrong. The dirty politics and incompetence have simply made the difference in pay the price for self-respect.
Captain Brad Mahoney
Line Pilot
Brad Mahoney
[email protected]
02-23-2012, 01:11 PM
#4
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,931
Did you even read this thing before posting and defending it?
02-23-2012, 01:25 PM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2007
Position: 57 Capt
Posts: 141
I'm sorry, but this crazy diatribe reminds me too much of the infamous spam email...
"I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Wales,United Kingdom for a short vacation..."
Do you think BM was really behind the gmail account hacking?
.
"I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Wales,United Kingdom for a short vacation..."
Do you think BM was really behind the gmail account hacking?
.
02-23-2012, 01:45 PM
#6
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2006
Position: B-777
Posts: 455
I don't know Brad very well, met him once. He seems like a descent guy and I definitely appreciate his volunteerism. But that being said, I don't agree with his vision of where our union needs to go. Brad was a big part of DW regime and clearly believes in that philosophy. I wish him luck and look forward to the other block reps being removed and start with the business of uniting this union and getting a contract. IMO!
02-23-2012, 01:47 PM
#7
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,931
Anyone who tries to tell me he is lying had better have ironclad proof.
To My Fellow FedEx Pilots,
...That secrecy might be minimally justified if the MEC were working as fiduciaries and replacing the personnel responsible for this. But in lacking the will to act, the MEC as a body makes itself an accomplice in allowing the incompetence to remain veiled....The MEC, because of political co-opting and stratification, has failed as a body....
....That’s why it’s presently open season on your MEC - so that the Chicago-style machine can cull the dissent from the herd....
Brad Mahoney
To My Fellow FedEx Pilots,
...That secrecy might be minimally justified if the MEC were working as fiduciaries and replacing the personnel responsible for this. But in lacking the will to act, the MEC as a body makes itself an accomplice in allowing the incompetence to remain veiled....The MEC, because of political co-opting and stratification, has failed as a body....
....That’s why it’s presently open season on your MEC - so that the Chicago-style machine can cull the dissent from the herd....
Brad Mahoney
Hey, I'm not saying anyone is lying at this point but I can't make heads or tails out of this.
Is the MEC the problem or under attack by the evil conspiracy? Maybe they are the evil conspiracy?!
What I'm hearing is, again, publicly announced sour grapes that the MEC isn't doing what someone wants.
02-23-2012, 01:58 PM
#8
Part Time Employee
Joined APC: Jul 2006
Position: Dispersing Green House Gasses on a Global Basis
Posts: 1,918
I don't know Brad very well, met him once. He seems like a descent guy and I definitely appreciate his volunteerism. But that being said, I don't agree with his vision of where our union needs to go. Brad was a big part of DW regime and clearly believes in that philosophy. I wish him luck and look forward to the other block reps being removed and start with the business of uniting this union and getting a contract. IMO!
Do you know how many of the current administration were there working under DW?
I'm not saying the DW style was the way to go but to label anyone as a DW crony just because they disagree with SS is unjustified.
02-23-2012, 02:44 PM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2006
Position: Captain
Posts: 157
Well BM, isn't that special. Who could be behind all this, could it be SATAN! (or DW as the case may be) Are you really saying that this pilot group would accept any 4A2B fix that wasn't a real fix. We get to vote on any agreement no matter who's in charge. If you stand with CB, TH or any other of the DW "good ole boys" you have lost all credibility with many of us plain old line flyers. And as for secret negotiations, I ask if you remember the first HKG loa, age 60 rule change lobbying inside ALPA that allowed guys to come move back to a window seat then our funny excess bid out of the back of the 727, the BC line purity side letter, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure others could add even better examples. If BM wanted that letter posted, he has resigned as vice chair and could have posted it himself. In my opinion, it just doesn't pass the smell test. Just so you know, I'm just a line pilot, not a volunteer or committee member. Not now, not ever. Wish I was able to do it and I appreciate the vast majority of those who do.
Last edited by FlyByNite; 02-23-2012 at 04:20 PM. Reason: spelling
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