CBreezy

It was physical not possible for me to be there yesterday. I would have been if it were.

Why was it a waste of time? From what I understand, the recall initiator spoke as well as a few other people. Minds were not going to be changed so a motion to end debate was made. DA admitted a bunch of instructors bypassed into the council (likely local or already getting paid lodging) which were probably mostly going to vote for him. Commuters had no shot of being there so once again, union business is accomplished by locals only.
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I don't think it was a waste of time at all. It took, what, 40 minutes? That's what meetings are for.

CRJphlyer

My buddy was there carrying my proxy. There were at least 10-15 commuters there. Most on their day off. Some on vacation. All had their weekends destroyed by not being able to make it home after the IT meltdown yesterday.

Worth noting that the C44 Reps actually were in favor of removing the council bypass at the last MEC meeting because it’s mostly abused for political reasons but the item was tabled.

I also heard that one of the vocal opponents of the 5:40 /day for ALPA volunteers was called out for averaging MORE than 5:40 /day themselves. Plus the average has actually moved UP from the previous calculation that led the PMRC to originally arrive at 5:40 /day.

Heard they didn’t even have anyone in favor of the recall raise their hands to help gather votes. Just a total embarrassing clown show.

FangsF15

It is human nature to oftentimes see what we want to see. One outlier ninja (who said he's a single dad, and therefore maximizes his pay per day) does not dissolve any legitimate concerns about reps voting themselves a raise, regardless of whether that rises to the level of justifying recall.

I had the impression that the reps had done a lot of groundwork and rallied many of thier friends/allies/fellow ALPA insiders to thier cause (as is thier right). Interesting that some folks seem to deride one side for trying to rally votes to thier cause while applauding the other side for doing the exact same thing.

Clearly, the votes weren't there. The "maker" of the whole thing recognized it, hesitated to even "make" the second motion for Rep #2, and righly didn't push it beyond that.

I will agree though that Social Media (APC included) does sometimes fail to reflect the actual will of the people (or, at least, those who are motivated to proxy/show up). Personally, I think it's a healthy thing every once in a while to keep the reps honest. If they know they will be held to account if they run afoul of thier electorate, isn't that a good thing? As with anything, too much of a good thing can be worse though.

CRJphlyer

That one pilot isn’t some “ninja”. I know several pilots who regularly credit 100+ every single month and they’re off way more than full time ALPA people.

CBreezy

Those 10-15 people must've been lucky because very few flights made it to ATL by noon yesterday. The meeting started at 11 and any commuter planning on being there on their days off would have no reason to come in the night before. If you planned on being on commuting in the day of, your chases of being there were slim to none.

That's good on them then. I think if you council bypass you should have to wait at least one meeting cycle before participating.

As for no one in favor, I completely understand. Other than those of us that were vocal, why set a target on your back? One rep was overheard in the lounge yesterday calling anyone who supported a recall a coward. A coward for DARING to stand up against your elected reps. They didn't want to hear discussion. They wanted to brow beat and punish anyone who supported the recall. That's embarrassing

The fact that people were being attacked for wanting to recall their reps, a completely legitimate action allowed within our C&BL and you're wondering why no one wanted to volunteer to collect votes? Someone did, by the way.

CBreezy

And that's a choice you have to make. Just because you work for the union doesn't mean you should get paid the most with the most time off. I don't want people volunteering for ALPA because you can make 140 hours a month and be home most days. That leads to cronyism and corruption

CRJphlyer

ALPA work should not be any more or less profitable than flying the line. Sorry those of you who supported recall had an ulterior motive and didn’t gain traction. Everything that was brought up in that meeting has already been discussed by the C44 and other council reps in person and in their council comms.

CBreezy

Take off the tin foil hat. There are no conspiracies.

​​​​​​And you're right, shouldn't be more lucrative, which for many, it absolute is. And not just in terms of dollar signs but also significantly improved quality of life over equal relative seniority.

CRJphlyer

And flying the line is also lucrative. There is no perfect solution to this and no one is ever going to be 100% happy. How do you incentivize pilots to do ALPA work when they can go fly the line and make more and in the case of full time ALPA volunteers, have more days off? The real benefit to ALPA isn’t the Reps making more money, it’s to try to help incentivize committee volunteers.

100 hours /month probably isn’t enough for some people to want to do ALPA work. But I’m sure it helps convince some that it’s maybe worth sticking around for or throwing their name in the hat for.

I don’t even really understand why some pilots care so much what the ALPA guys are being compensated for… They’re doing jobs no one else really is interested in. And many of the committee volunteers work without FPL to try and help the pilots. If they wanted 6:40 /day for ALPA work I literally do not care. We’re flying under the best, most lucrative contract of our careers. Someone pointed out that in real terms, the amount of dues income that DALPA is receiving from Delta pilots is up over 40% compared to 2021… Which means we’re collectively enjoying somewhere around 40% raises.

notEnuf

It puts the reps on notice, now we will see if the lack of recall strength (for whatever reason) is interpreted as affirmation or discontent. If my rep didn't bother to show for anything prior to a recall threat I would hope it is interpreted as discontent and his behavior changes. We will see.