forgot to bid

Whats wrong with black helicopters?

Personally some of them are really awesome.

80ktsClamp

I LOVED airwolf!! Nice pull, ftb.

forgot to bid

we know who joe merchant is. there are more than a few posts within that juggernaut of a Delta thread that involved a back and forth with joe over what he wants long term. in fact I have a common ground with him, we need to get ATRs/props back in the fleet, we just differ on who'd fly em.

thus, it's no secret to us his background. but I don't recall ever questioning his truthfulness. knowing Joe from his posts, I'd accept what he said as being true until overwhelming evidence proved otherwise.

forgot to bid

I'm surprised sometimes that there isn't a mainline version of the RJDC that sues ALPA for NOT negotiating and enforcing stronger scope clauses on behalf of the original mainline pilots because the union's sought to include subcontractor pilot unions for financial and political power. And thus has failed to protect the majorities jobs because the national union now has the responsibility to provide fair representation to all members despite the fact that the minority members benefit from the transfer of jobs from the original members to themselves.

That to me, like what the RJDC claimed, is a bit of a conflict of interest. Just surprised you don't see the opposite occurring now.

sailingfun

You are giving unions superhuman powers. Most of the scope changes were forced via management. Many major airlines like Delta had no scope at all 30 years ago. There have been dramatic improvements since then. Unseen market changes, 1113 threats and companies on the brink of going out of business all contributed the to the downgrades in scope. No union gets everything it wants just because it asks for it. Negotiations are always about power. Management held most of the cards and much of the power in the last 10 years. That situation is changing as we speak and the power is shifting. I voted against the current contract in part because of the duration. I do however recognize that the majority voted for the contract and it has 2 years 1 month and 9 days to run. Crying constantly about how horrible the contract is does no good. We need to be working toward the opener. We have to be laying the ground work with the NMB and other government entities to insure our rights under the RLA. We need to prepare a opener and a strategy that will produce a industry leading contract in a reasonable amount of time.
I am like many pilots. I have never done my share of the hard work. There are a lot of pilots doing a tremendous amount of work trying to get us a better contract when the time comes. Its been my experience that those who complain and whine the most also do the very least with a few notable exceptions. I remember trying to assist with strike prep for pilots in my area. I needed a bit of help. I thought who best to help but the regulars who complain about everything and called two of them first. They were both to busy to provide any assistance.
I have had major disagreements with many DALPA reps many times. I have seen contracts and issues go against my wishes. I have however never doubted how hard the DALPA reps work and that they felt they had my best interests in mind. Once something was done I moved on and got over it when it did not go my way. The recent contract angst all seems to be a result of Delta finally making a profit in 2 quarters. Sadly however that does not change the fact the contract ratified by the pilot group has 2 more years to go. I think the best move is to focus on the future and the most critical contract for Delta pilots in history that is upcoming. Name call and finger pointing will get us no where and is counterproductive. I want and deserve a industry leading contract. Its not going to be easy and is going to take a lot of hard work to get there. I see a lot of people willing to complain about everything but far to few really willing to work to move forward.

Jughead

I loved that show when I was a kid. It was in my top 3 along with CHiPs and T.J. Hooker.

That was a pretty cool intro (for the 80's), except maybe for the Jan-Michael Vincent playing the Cello part. And the guy with the sunglasses/eyepatch thing. That always seemed a bit creepy.

scambo1

YouTube - Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark

This is a pretty badazz black helo too. I saw it at the Paris airshow about 15 years ago and it was more impressive in person.

acl65pilot

Great post!

You make some great points. One thing I have realized is that the "want" is easy, but getting that want to become a reality is quite another. It takes hard work, and all of that hard work needs to be backed up by a unified pilot group. Until you have that, it is quite easy to divide and conquer.

forgot to bid

Sailing I promise I'm not talking about DALPA. It's just an observation about the irony of the RJDC situation today. It's just that while the RJDC pilots and many mainline (say anti ALPA national) pilots have completely opposite goals they both claim the same thing on the national level and that is a conflict of interest.*

As to DALPA and any local union in my experience the closer the hierarchy gets to you the more that individual works harder and for less total reward. That is always going to be the case a's a huge amount of lift is always done by the lec and volunteers. I don't think anyone doubts that nor questions it. I think that's the one thing that everyone on a DALPA vs DPA agree about- we all need a union.

It's national that creates the angst with me and not DALPA a's a whole.

tsquare

It's this^^^^^ and unfortunately many here see no way to separate the head from the body.... but just as many do...