Originally Posted by Take Priority

It looks like the visit to DC was a surprise for J-LO (Jeff Lorenzo) today. Below is a synopsis of the meeting.

PLEASE FORWARD



Everyone should be holding their heads high today and will be extremely proud of our solidarity in presence and message to J-Lo. We had about 40 pilots and 10 flight attendants present for the CEO goat rope. The entourage of people this guys travels with is impressive: senior managers, sound technicians, photographers and a bunch of other ass-kissers. Not to include all the local management teams that showed up to tell Jeff how great they think he is.


There were seats for about 400 and about half that many people present. We were picketing out front until it started and then everyone moved indoors and sat together taking up three rows in the second section back. We had four of us positioned at two mics in the center aisle (Steve did a great job at having a game plan and scoping all this out). When Smilton was done with his “we’re making good progress with the merger” crap it was then opened up for questions. All four of us took up positions at both mics – two at the forward mic and two of us at the aft mic.


We started with asking him that if employees are so important to this company like he says we are, then why have you not held to the agreement that you made with the pilots regarding the TPA and negotiating a deal by last October? He said he was unaware of this 8 week agreement ending last Oct. in the TPA (that’s funny). Once that a pilot had the floor, every pilot present stood in unison and in uniform until that pilot no longer had the floor (very impressive and Jeff didn’t like it one bit). Every time this happened he commented about how it seemed we had a standing ovation and invited anybody wearing pink shirts to stand up next. He expanded on his so called efforts to combine work forces and use the Flight Attendant group as an example. He said that they are voting for representation at this time, but he has been committed to getting them a JCBA and is doing everything he can to make that happen (an outright lie). The local AFA president shot out of his chair and right to the mic to get in line. He set the record straight with Jeff and said that not once has the company met with them outside the required Section 6 rules and never for a JCBA. So Smilton asked Mike (some labor relations executive) if this is true and this guy said, and let me quote here, “I don’t know if we have or not.” Another bold faced lie; this guy gets paid millions to know exactly what’s going on with negotiations.


One of us told him that every time he makes a comment in these popular financial news prints about how important the employees are to the success of this airline, and that he is losing more and more credibility by keeping us on the back burner. So given that you think the employees are so important; can you please tell us what’s more important and the biggest priority at this point, obtaining your Single Operating Certificate or negotiating a contract for the pilots and you can’t say both? His response was “both” and he went on to gloss right over the question. I then had a chance to ask Jeff:


My father worked for United for 38 years on the ramp and in CS at a time when this was a decent place to come to work. Mr. Smisek, I speak on behalf of all the CAL & UAL pilots when I say were ****ed off and we’re not working together anymore. I have been here for 14 years and have seen 5 of you come and go only to pad your bank accounts on the backs of the employees of United. “Well, I’ve only seen one of you.” I think there’s a lot more of me standing here today. You need to stop lying to us about getting us a contract. How can you say that you don’t know about the agreement you made with the United Pilots? I’m holding the TPA in my hand at it says that you will do your best to negotiate a deal with us and have it in place by last October? We will not be strung along in some mediation process by you for 5 years just like the American Pilots find themselves today: “nobody’s stringing anyone along.” That’s exactly what you’re doing: showing up at the negotiating table just so we can see what color sport coat your wearing today is not negotiating in good faith. When this company wanted a deal back in 2000 we had a contract in two weeks. When are you going to stop lying to the United Pilots and when are you going to get our contract settled?


He really didn’t have a whole lot to say regarding these points. There were a couple of questions from two retirees and one CS employee and that was it. It will be interesting to see what these morons write in Jeff’s Journal and United Today. We then all went outside and walked a picket line along the street in front of the hotel: a lot of horns of support.


My take is that these things are usually a get together for all the management teams at the local area and some employees to come and kiss Jeff’s ass and tell him how great he is. I think we had the first one that Jeff looked a little bit like the snake that he really is. This was a really good day for the United Pilots, United Flight Attendants and any other employee that feels their getting the shaft. We need to make this a first step and not the last. He must face the United Pilots at every possible opportunity. We must get our local officers to step it up and start picketing at our corporate accounts: we can do this without Morse and her people, it just takes a little leadership.


Thanks for all the support,
xxxx xxxxxxxx

Get in the fight!

Originally Posted by Airhoss

Awesome job bro.. It's time to take the kid gloves off and start B'slapping this dude at every oportuntiy especially in public.

Originally Posted by EWRflyr

He had to take it as the man in charge this time. Back a few years ago, a pilot's wife got up to the mic at a shareholders' meeting and said exactly what she thought about quality time with her husband and the time he has away from the family and pay.

Larry was CEO at the time but J. Lo was sitting there looking like he was a cooked lobster. Face red and not happy that a pilot's wife would dare question CAL leadership.