FLMD11CAPT

3rd through infinity.......do it Albie.

tennesseeflyboy

Steam, you are right on with all of it .................. Ditto. I don't get the feeling that ALPA has been the answer for the cargo guys and gals, they seem to be more about themselves and the passenger folks. We are paying THE MOST $$$ of anyone out there right now and I am sure they are happy with that one .................. I do not intend to denigrate any one person who has given limitless hours and unselfish talent towards trying help our own.
My problem is with ALPA in itself, I see a lot of room for improvement on the Cargo side and while they are at it, keep all the lip service to themselves. We need performance here not excuses. The rank and file here needs more bang for the buck ................ Are we getting it ? I am not yet convinced.

FDXLAG

Might I suggest constitution changes where we directly elect block reps not LEC reps and more importantly directly elect MEC officers. Less oportunity for leadership via back room deal rumors. Could stagger MEC officer elections so the membership can provide regular guidance to the politbureau.

What better time then right now as we have 3 or 4 years to wait for the company to us make a real offer.

FLMD11CAPT

I like it.......I like it alot. Lets go with this........

gderek

Albie that would be awesome, we draft you.

As for Steam, you are right about ALPA national but don't fall victim to what all of the troublemakers are trying to do. In fact, I'm surprised that the Negotiating guys resigned. I'd stay and fight, I guess they felt too compromised.

FDXLAG

I should add that maybe MEC officers would be better able to defend themselves against charges of block hour abuse by all parties if they didnt owe the block reps their loyalty and vice versa.

Albief15

You guys are quite flattering...I feel like Miss Piggy getting complimented. But, like Miss Piggy, I"m still at heart a fat chick with quite a few flaws...and detractors.

Here's the deal: The bros don't' elect the MEC officers, the MEC reps do. I'm pretty darn sure a few of those fine folks would NEVER vote for me. Whomever gets the nod, however, will have the job of making sure we can get everyone playing (somewhat) peacefully and get moving back in the right direction. I personally was encouraged by the progress being made by all the committees when I left, and I'd don't like this kind of destructive behavior. I will simply say that in my 3 years as an MEC member, I never compromised executive session material (was accused by DW once but it was refuted) and I never trash talked another rep or committee person. We gotta get back to learning to walk before we can run towards success.

If it were me, I'd let the sharp guys you elect make the best call on that one. What I would do, however, is do everything I could to make sure that henceforth and forevermore we don't' have 20% turnout in any elections, but push guys to make a stand and vote. It was also easy for me to pound the table when my block had the highest survey response, participation, etc. I felt like when I spoke I really did have about 500 guys (and another 1000 from the other blocks) behind me. Engagement=success. Passive=other people decide your fate. No VC...Martin, Manning, Mahoney...is gonna "fix" the MEC or solve all your problems. It takes a unified group, and that is why this undercutting to me is so frustrating.

What's the fix? Dunno yet, but I still have faith in the line pilot and the ability of most of us to see through the fog and dust and find the truth. I'm irritated, but I still feel like we have made good progress and will continue to do so.

PicklePausePull

Agree here with Davey Crocket. ALPA is very expensive. No excuse for the passenger guys throwing the cargo guys under the bus, especially considering the amount of dough we cough up. ALPA should have said all or nothing in its response to the new duty time regs.

PicklePausePull

Agree. It is offensive to professional pilots, most who have served in the military and support republican ideals, to have an affiliation with the AFL-CIO, which endorses left wing politicians, and is known for its historical ties with organized crime.
The MEC should be focussing on FEDEX issues. That is what we are paying for. I don't give a hoot about the AFL-CIO, Democrat party politics, or passenger carriers (because they obviously don't give a hoot about us in the cargo community). I fly cargo. Represent me in the job I do!

olly

As a professional airline pilot, I'd highly recommend that you read "Flying the Line Part II".

As a former military pilot, ensconced in a sheltered world, I naively believed in most so called egalitarian "republican ideals", that were the defacto "culture" in the military, existed as well in big business.

I was wrong. Mostly just ignorant of the management-labor/owner of capital vs owners of labor history in our good country. (because we never had to deal with it in the military). After you do some bonafide research of the factual history of our industry you may draw your own conclusions.

After sitting in the BK courtroom & watching the BK of UAL proceedings, I took an active interest in understanding this. I was apalled at the actions presented in the book, "Flying the Line II", and even did independent research to validate & verify. Reading further labor/management hsitory of our railroads (where do you think the railway labor act comes from??) you'll see the airlines management just copied what the railroads did to labor earlier in US history.

The only thing that has changed is that labor has not learned what is being foist upon them. Both groups tend to overreach, and at times each gets hurt. However, in the long run, the working man who is neither sufficiently educated, nor with the organizational, historical or financial clout is the one disadvantaged. That is the sole reason for the affiliation that you find troubling.

I'm quite sure, if you are intellectually honest, and put your past bias aside while you learn about our profession, you will understand. You might not like it, you'll find out some of our countries' leaders (gov & industry) took action that you might never think they would-but they did.

For me it took the event of a bankruptcy, and loss of a pension & ESOP stock to wake up and "smell the coffe" - to get smart on the real playing field we're on. Most guys here at FDX have not been thru such a traumatic experience, and as you've heard, comfort leads to complacency and expectation bias- thus no motivation to "learn" the new environment of just being labor for a big business. i.e we've had it relatively ok at FDX, so by & large there hasn't been an impetus for the average line guy to delve into the subject, so he lives with his learned experience (military- cuz that's what we knew).