Comair MEC cuts off comm. with company

[RiddleEagle18]

The comair MEC made another brilliant move today. At probably the most critical time in many pilots lives the comair MEC has dropped the ball again. Facing 300 furloughs and massive displacements the MEC has decided to break off communication and any support given to the company over several other disputed issues. I will say these issues are very serious however given the timing of this, it is just another slap in the face to ALPA members. I understand I have only been in this business a short time but ALPA has already given me a very sour taste.


Just to give you my perspective I am not in danger of being furloughed and Im still mad as hell about this.

 

[DoinTime]

I understand I have only been in this business a short time but ALPA has already given me a very sour taste.

You probably have a sour taste for ALPA because you have no clue of how labor relations, negotiations, or Union management work. You have the typical pilot "I'm in charge" attitude and if you don't agree with something that is going on the other person is most certainly wrong.

I've got a recommendation for you. If you want to be that person who gets to decide how things are going to be then get up off your dead a** and get involved. :angryfire

 

[RiddleEagle18]

You probably have a sour taste for ALPA because you have no clue of how labor relations, negotiations, or Union management work. You have the typical pilot "I'm in charge" attitude and if you don't agree with something that is going on the other person is most certainly wrong.

I've got a recommendation for you. If you want to be that person who gets to decide how things are going to be then get up off your dead a** and get involved. :angryfire

wow thanks. Thats exactly the attitude our MEC has. F our junior guys. Im obviously uneducated about how labor negotiations work. We just dont understand how sacrificing jobs because you wont work with the company to mitigate furloughs will benefit us. How hard is it to lay down other concerns for A WEEK. 1 WEEK so they can negotiate lower min line values, voluntary furloughs, and COLA's.

Please explain to me how f'ing your pilots over at one of the most critical times in their careers is helping the union. This will serve to piss off alot of junior guys and divide the pilot group. Any divided pilot group is useless right???? At least thats what my "brothers" up top always say.

This is the exact reason why we need a union for situations like this. They are failing our junior pilots at the time they need them the most. They need to get off their high horse and work with the company now on the issue that is most pressing. I would love to make the decisions but not all of us can be involved for reasons outside our control. Thats why we pay dues so we can have a few full time guys deal with this crap.

 

[JustaNumber]

It doesn't take a genius to see that you are both right. RiddleEagle, you need to realize that ALPA, especially your local MEC, is not just a bunch of fat guys wearing vests and pocket watches, smoking stogies in a dark room somewhere. ALPA is YOU. More specifically, a group of guys just like you. Sure, a few guys spend more time than you volunteering to speak for the majority, but that doesn't supplant your need to become involved.

I'm not saying you have to run for MEC president, I'm saying give all your MEC members a call and make your thoughts heard. If enough of your pilot group does so, they have no choice but to represent you. Then at least you can feel like you are doing something. The alternative is doing nothing, which in my opinion is worse than what you are accusing your MEC of doing. And bitching on a message board doesn't count.

That being said, I wish the best of luck to your company and pilot group.

 

[Dodge]

I understand the sentiment of a junor guy on the cutting block, but the union's stance as got to be to let go of the excess and full contract compliance from the company. It has been proven over and over and over and over that when you give something away out of your contract that took decades to get put in, the company knows that it can keep coming back to the well. And they will. On top of that, just think about the senior guys who worked to get the contract language that you have. By watering it down for the juniors, that will only prove that all the hard work the seniors did was for not and totally unrespected by the juniors.

Now, let's examine US Air. Those guys gave away EVERYTHING and you know what happened. The airline went away anyway. If you negotiate your contract away, the company may very well (probably) furlough anyway. Now, when the furloughs come back, they have a crap contract to work under.

Guys, this is simple economics.

If you have 30 people in the water and the life raft holds 20, what do you do?

A. Nothing. All drown
B. Load all 30 and all drown.
C. Load 20 and have have something left.

 

[I_Love_Lamp]

If you have 30 people in the water and the life raft holds 20, what do you do?

A. Nothing. All drown
B. Load all 30 and all drown.
C. Load 20 and have have something left.

D. Rotate all 30 people so 20 get to sleep in the raft for a while and 10 tread water, then switch after 2 hours?

Or is thinking outside of the box not allowed?

 

[samballs]

wow thanks. Thats exactly the attitude our MEC has. F our junior guys. Im obviously uneducated about how labor negotiations work. We just dont understand how sacrificing jobs because you wont work with the company to mitigate furloughs will benefit us. How hard is it to lay down other concerns for A WEEK. 1 WEEK so they can negotiate lower min line values, voluntary furloughs, and COLA's.

Please explain to me how f'ing your pilots over at one of the most critical times in their careers is helping the union. This will serve to piss off alot of junior guys and divide the pilot group. Any divided pilot group is useless right???? At least thats what my "brothers" up top always say.

This is the exact reason why we need a union for situations like this. They are failing our junior pilots at the time they need them the most. They need to get off their high horse and work with the company now on the issue that is most pressing. I would love to make the decisions but not all of us can be involved for reasons outside our control. Thats why we pay dues so we can have a few full time guys deal with this crap.

Maybe you should educate yourself instead of relying on Dan Fords letter. First we're in a black out because soaper has not let us use FPL, this is so they can start making it harder than they already have to help the pilot group. As far as lowering min line values, look at the 70 lines, we all got what we want but the values are as low as 73 hrs (min line value was around 82). This happened because the remainder of JC's talentless puppets all resigned at the same time, why because they had no time to do rundowns or other union duties. while I had issues with the way they handle themselves they did a great job of watching the company screw with our schedules and nailing them. Most people on the commitees have 12 days off from OH and work with ALPA on those 12 days.

You say we should be negotiating with the company, well guess what oh smart one, last meeting with Soaper went this way, "hey guys, you gonna agree to the horrible Maestro? it violates every single section of the contract! If you approve it will fix that! No..... Fix it and we'll agree to it, if not its no better than the system we have.. Well then we're done talking, real mature Dave.." Dave soaper is not willing to talk unless we approve the Maestro. a lot of the people being F------ are the ones hired for the Mesa flying, they new the situation, it may suck but thats how it is. Funny all of us in CVG were fighting to get an LEC in JFK for the junior guys that on a daily basis violate a FAR and are disciplined or fired. But you guys do nothing to help the local 45, and once the local 45 probation is up, it will closed down and you will now have to rely on us "people above" in CVG to make descions foir you. Maybe if you got involved instead of just Bitching we wouldn't be in this situation, you would maybe also understand that this move in the short time does suck but in the long run it is killing the company because they have certain things they need from us, and can't get anywhere without the assistants of the union.

But hey keep coming on here to tell all of us how bad it is, while I spend the next 4 days working on issues for you and the pilots. By the way you Ford Lacky, this will mean I'm working 12 days in a row, and I commute. But yep you're right we're doing nothing, maybe just maybe its you do nothing......

 

[DoinTime]

Im obviously uneducated about how labor negotiations work. We just dont understand how sacrificing jobs because you wont work with the company to mitigate furloughs will benefit us. How hard is it to lay down other concerns for A WEEK. 1 WEEK so they can negotiate lower min line values, voluntary furloughs, and COLA's.

You really need to call your status rep to find out why your MEC did what they did. Comair management isn't about to give any of things you mentioned away for free. Your MEC is probably pissed at management because they are demanding permanent financial concessions just to get them to do the right thing for their pilots.

Like I said though, call your rep to get the straight story before you get on here and lambast ALPA. ALPAs bad rap comes mostly through wild, uneducated speculation just like this. Congratulations on weakening us all.

 

[Dodge]

D. Rotate all 30 people so 20 get to sleep in the raft for a while and 10 tread water, then switch after 2 hours?

Or is thinking outside of the box not allowed?

Rolling furloughs. Good stuff.

 

[imacdog]

Comair's MEC has never communicated well with their membership. Perhaps if they start there, the membership will better understand what is going on and why.