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Old 09-26-2010, 12:06 PM
  #621  
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By the guys we vote in!
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Old 09-26-2010, 01:45 PM
  #622  
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Originally Posted by Carl Spackler
How do you propose to foster this UNITY? There is no way I want one single leg of a flight that says Delta Air Lines on it to be flown by anyone other than a seniority list pilot.

Carl
Carl,

That is unity. All flying done by seniority lists pilots.

The problem is, as it always has been, that pilots believe they have an advantage by breaking ranks and selling out other pilots for individual gain.

The problem is not the mechanism to achieve unity. The NWA and Delta pilots tackled a larger problem and combined because we knew we needed to. Delta pilots saw your 747 and intrinsically knew it had to be "Delta." It wasn't easy, but we did a good job of finding the way to unity among our pilots.

Unfortunately we looked at the bottom 50% of our own flying and decided that isn't ours. That was our decision, negotiated at our bargaining table.

To find unity we fist have to educate our membership and leadership as to why it is imperative. Why every member is power at the bargaining table.

As for an integration scheme, we can get into that if you want to. But, participating ALPA members (all of them) have to be at the table. Wars of occupation never succeed. Assimilation works.

Last edited by Bucking Bar; 09-26-2010 at 03:47 PM.
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Old 09-26-2010, 02:20 PM
  #623  
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Originally Posted by 80ktsClamp
Anyone care to educate this guy how MEC chairs are chosen?
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Old 09-26-2010, 02:23 PM
  #624  
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Originally Posted by Carl Spackler
How do you propose to foster this UNITY? There is no way I want one single leg of a flight that says Delta Air Lines on it to be flown by anyone other than a seniority list pilot. Most lifers at the regionals want to take as much flying as possible for their own growth. How do we bridge this gap?

Carl
I'm no regional lifer, and I can't speak for the lifers, but with my limited knowledge of airlines, outsourcing, and unions, we (the regional pilots) have zero power in deciding how much flying and what airframes we are given. That is completely up to Delta and the upper level managers at xyz regionals.

The only people who have actual power to affect change of this "outsourcing" trend are you guys.

I'm not your enemy. I don't want more flying. I may not have this job for the right reasons, but I don't want to stay here forever especially at the expense of a chance of sitting in a real Delta seat.

Lifers aren't your enemy. They are merely protecting their seats from lower bidders.

Stopping outsourcing has to start at the source. All we can do at a regional is preventing outsourcing of our contract flying.
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Old 09-26-2010, 04:02 PM
  #625  
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Originally Posted by cencal83406
I'm no regional lifer, and I can't speak for the lifers, but with my limited knowledge of airlines, outsourcing, and unions, we (the regional pilots) have zero power in deciding how much flying and what airframes we are given. That is completely up to Delta and the upper level managers at xyz regionals.

The only people who have actual power to affect change of this "outsourcing" trend are you guys.

I'm not your enemy. I don't want more flying. I may not have this job for the right reasons, but I don't want to stay here forever especially at the expense of a chance of sitting in a real Delta seat.

Lifers aren't your enemy. They are merely protecting their seats from lower bidders.

Stopping outsourcing has to start at the source. All we can do at a regional is preventing outsourcing of our contract flying.

Pinnacle's contract (the one theyve been under since 2000 and that you're still flying under) was signed to secure more and larger airplanes. They were flying 33 pink saabs at the time.

Many guys at pinnacle and other carriers were chomping at the bit there to get 70 seaters when I was there... which always prompted a stern lecture from me. There was always some giddy crew room rumor going around that NW pilots had given up scope and there was a 700 in the hangar in MEM or something to that effect.

The main issue with scope relief the past 10 years was bankruptcy. Mgmt had a gun to everyone's heads and it was complete chaos. Of course it all started many years ago, but management successfully snuck a bomb into the center of the dam. We're now trying to use our fingertips to plug that problem.

It's a complex problem with many parties at fault and everyone pointing fingers trying to place blame isn't going to fix anything. We do have to do everything possible to fix this mess.
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Old 09-26-2010, 04:17 PM
  #626  
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Originally Posted by RedeyeAV8r
Just an outsider looking in.
More Air Frames are good for Delta, as long as it is Delta Pilots doing the flying!

If your MEC Chairman truly thinks outsourcing Mainline Jobs to Regionals is a good thing, sounds like the DAL pilots need to write their LEC and MEC reps and suggest otherwise!
That's been done. Our current MEC chairman does as he pleases and the LEC members have a record of defending him no matter what. There is a new crop of LEC members - which may make a difference. Nobody knows at this time.

Carl
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Old 09-26-2010, 04:21 PM
  #627  
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Originally Posted by shadyops
I asked 100 regional pilots if they were lifers at my current airline. Two said yes and they over 55. The rest gave a resounding hell no.
I'm surprised anyone thinks they are lifers. I would have assumed nobody thinks they are. But there are simply not enough jobs at majors to even come close to picking up the regional guys who are hireable and qualified. Thus many, many are lifers...whether they realize it or not.

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Old 09-26-2010, 04:23 PM
  #628  
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Originally Posted by shadyops
Delta pilots voted for him.
Originally Posted by 80ktsClamp
Anyone care to educate this guy how MEC chairs are chosen?
Yeah, I'll get it.

Dear shadyops,

Rank and file pilots do not get to vote for the MEC chairman

Carl
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Old 09-26-2010, 04:34 PM
  #629  
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Originally Posted by Bucking Bar
Carl,

Unfortunately we looked at the bottom 50% of our own flying and decided that isn't ours. That was our decision, negotiated at our bargaining table.
I don't know about Delta, but that is totally inaccurate at NWA. Our scope cave-ins have all been due to either bankruptcy, or a strike where the company made it clear they would rather see the company die without it. I wished we would have called their bluff and see if they went ahead and killed the company. A majority of the pilots relented under the pressure. We absolutely NEVER decided that flying wasn't ours.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar
To find unity we fist have to educate our membership and leadership as to why it is imperative. Why every member is power at the bargaining table.
That's over simplistic in my opinion. The Delta membership is not the problem anymore...if it ever was. The other part of the unity equation that you're ignoring is that ALPA national has decided that their future is tied to the regionals because they've calculated that's where the growth is. Also, the lifers at the regionals know they are never going to a major and will continue to strive to gain more and more flying.

How do we handle those two parts of the unity equation?

Carl
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Old 09-26-2010, 04:45 PM
  #630  
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Originally Posted by cencal83406
The only people who have actual power to affect change of this "outsourcing" trend are you guys.
You completely ignore your "power" in this problem. You took the job, and continue to work for wages that are badly damaging our profession.

Originally Posted by cencal83406
I'm not your enemy. I don't want more flying. I may not have this job for the right reasons,
If you want a job at a major, you definitely do not have the job for the right reasons - which I'm sure is now obvious to you. If you don't ever want to join a major, then it's a little more understandable.

Originally Posted by cencal83406
but I don't want to stay here forever especially at the expense of a chance of sitting in a real Delta seat.
Here's the problem. When you took that job, you are only ensuring that you stay there forever because you are diluting the chance for that Delta seat.

Originally Posted by cencal83406
Stopping outsourcing has to start at the source. All we can do at a regional is preventing outsourcing of our contract flying.
I hope that after reading this, you'll understand there is a lot more that you and regional pilots could do.

Carl
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