80ktsClamp

When I see a guy without a hat walking through the terminal, it always reminds me of a child holding their breath and stomping their feet.

Bill Lumberg

That last picture is what T'O almost saw in Peachtree City when he came down here to give a townhall meeting a few months back. I think he was expecting to see 40 or 50 people, and 200 angry people showed up. It was entertaining, and also it was good for him to see that most of us won't "settle" for ALPA's "managing our expectation game." Show us a great contract with pay, work rule increases, and scope recovery, or move over. No more "Which one do you want, or what will you give up for it?" schtick. RESTORATION TIME IS HERE. Where is Slowplay or Pineapple to "downplay" all of this and then try to make me feel bad? Get to work on this restoration or go back to the line.

BlueMoon

Places I would consider buying a house in.

25-35min to work
Ann Arbor, Saline, Novi, Northville, Plymouth, Livonia, Wixom, Walled Lake, Gross Ile, New Boston, Farmington Hills.

35-45min
Royal Oak, Bloomfield Hills, White Lake, Brighton, Howell, South Lyon

45-60min
Lake Orion, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills

I have personally lived in Livonia (grew up there), Farmington Hills (2 years), and Royal Oak (currently) and visited friends or family in all the cities I listed. All are safe, clean, and to my knowledge have decent schools.

TheManager

First, regardless of where we stand, we all have to be unified going into this section 6. We need to all be Delta pilots and not view ourselves through a DPA of DALPA lens. However, to be unified, we need to be informed.

I was astounded to fly with a good guy who:

1. Had no concept of the scope abuse and when we talked about it had grasp of the situation with ALK, AF/KLM and the others. To him scope was just an RJ problem.

Now, as I see it, part of the reason that he is not informed is that DALPA does not see these arrangements as a problem. They, of course, signed of on it and our MEC Chair signed the MOU that extended the AF/KLM rebalancing out several years.

Having an alternate source of information and fact checking is a good thing. It is also important to inform those that have no idea the difference between SWA and UPS benefits compared to ours. I believe this is the source of most of the heart burn that our MEC Communications Chair has now with the DPA. Reference the recent T & G's.

Thus, Jack's idea of keeping a quick and viable option is intelligent. Having a structure in place as a counter balance while we all are unified as Delta pilots asserting ourselves for the contract we deserve is strategically sound.

DPA probably will not get the bump it needs on its own. However, to have the mothballed or easy to constitute mechanism there is going to be benefical.

Particularly when:

The Assesment arrives.

The Opener sucks.

The TA sucks.

Or, when UCAL bails leaving DAL holding the ALPA bag largely alone.

Bucking Bar

Some in ALPA leadership consider themselves partners with management in Delta's outsourcing scheme. As a result they take criticism of management's outsourcing as criticism of ALPA. It is unfortunate. Even when you give them a compliment for good work, they don't understand it. They are so conflicted they can't smile and reply "thanks."

Time to face reality ... We are on opposite sides of a table. The same network management that decimated Comair runs Delta. Their goal is simple ... they desire the cheapest unit of production, even if they destroy their own asset in the process.

Not to say there is anything wrong with our working with management to achieve mutual goals. However, those goals must exclude schemes which trade members' jobs for corporate profit. Our partnership can only exist when we are at the controls.

Some in ALPA fail to understand this most basic concept; that our power comes from each and every member we represent.

iaflyer

I live in Ann Arbor and love it. Good schools, nice downtown, nice people and easy shopping/places to eat abound. I'm 30 minutes from the employee lot with an easy, no traffic drive. (well, maybe 2-3 minutes at one particular exchange during PM rush, but that's it).

Many publications rate Ann Arbor as one of the "Best" cities to live in. Kiplinger.com just rated us as the best city for singles. Forbes rated us as #4 most livable city, Parents magazine, #4 for raising a family, etc, etc.

If you want to live more in the country, west and north of AA have a fair number of pilots living there.

exeagle

Amazing app. Lodgenet app for iphone. Use it to change channels, volume etc with your phone in your hotel room.

capncrunch

I agree! When I first learned we had to wear the hat I was upset because I thought it was dated and campy. I've since turned around 100%. I like the fact that we all look the same and think its very professional. I now look at the airlines that allow a mish mash of uniform choices as sloppy and now stand tall in the hat I used to hate. We are are all of one cloth.

Chomeur

I also live in Ann Arbor. I leave 50 minutes prior to show time and always make check-in on time with minutes to spare. What's not to like about living in base? Around here there are good schools for the kids, plenty of cheap places to eat, lots of good places to eat, lots of fun stuff to do on your days off. If you want kid stuff, a lot of Boy Scout and girl scout troops, soccer and hockey youth groups, chess clubs, art classes, whatever your child has in mnd, they have it. For your wife, they have women's lunch groups, college classes, Mom's groups that meet at the local coffee joint, karate, movies, whatever you can think of... For Dad, we have EAA, plenty of guys meet at Ann Arbor airport, or nearby fly-ins, which are a great way to meet local people, and if you like cars- there are a lot of engineers and car nerds locally which have far too much free time and knowledge to pass all your reserve days/free time knee deep in your new car project. Did I mention football? Basketball? Baseball? Tiger/Lion stadium only 35 minutes away with a mandatory pizza/beer at Pizza Papalis/Old Shililagh's....

forgot to bid

I wish we'd overnight there.

Not at your house but Ann Arbor.

I agree.