ALPA: THE PILOT’S UNION
Local Council 171
July 1, 2014
Houston:
My apologies for preaching to the Choir, but yesterday I took an unusually troubling call. Evidently, a Pilot was refused the jump seat because he didn’t have an ALPA pin on his tie. I know said Pilot and have seen him with his ALPA pin on his lapel; he certainly is not the enemy. Regardless of that fact, his family was boarded, and one of “ours” decided to take it upon himself to be judge and jury and deny said Pilot the jump seat.
As background, I’ve been an ALPA LEC Rep longer than most. I have absolutely no ambition to politically elevate myself to an MEC or National level committee position. Michael and I have been totally inclusive with regards to both the LCal and LUal pilots who want to move forward and serve on LEC 171 Committees. LC 171 is the first fully integrated Council; the IAHCPO is the first fully integrated Flight Office at United.
Please don’t mistake this as a plea for guys to stop wearing their legacy regalia. In contrast, I implore you to keep wearing it. I implore those individuals to keep verbally vocalizing your dissatisfaction with your legacy brethren. From an administrative standpoint, your brazen disrespect removes any doubt about your position, your lack of professionalism and your immaturity. Your venom will be handled accordingly.
Don’t ever get it wrong. LC 171 has an excellent record of good representation; we have not lost a Pilot to termination since I assumed office. LC 171 has achieved such success because we empower our volunteers to do what they do best: Advocate for our Pilots. The LC 171 committee structure is just about even (50% LCal, 50% LUal) and we operate in an environment of mutual respect. If this works in IAH, it can work in the rest of the bases. What we don’t need in IAH is any help from the peanut gallery. The volunteers in the 171-committee structure work tirelessly to promote our profession, and they don’t receive monetary compensation for said work. I couldn’t care less whether LUal or LCal hired them; our volunteers are more concerned about where we are going then where we came from.
I acknowledge that history/heritage is important. Discuss this amongst those who share that lineage. When not in that company, keep your mouth shut. Any idiot who deems it prudent to berate, undermine or insult his fellow Pilot is not someone 171 needs in IAH; If that is you, I implore you to seek a Council Bypass and get out of Houston because we don’t want or need you. Team smisek’s incompetence threatens our collective livelihoods continuously. LC 171 has no confidence in smisek or his team. Until the UAL board figures out that the emperor wears no clothes, we need the Pilots to coalesce. I remain pubescently optimistic that we can do this. I certainly admit that I don’t like this merger. But this merger is done, and no one cares whether I like it or not. No one cares whether you like it or not. What I do value is the support of the LC 171 volunteers. I’ll never run for re-election. “Thankless work” is an understatement.
We suffer from a leadership vacuum with team smisek at the helm. The only tool we have is UNITY. Please realize and remember that your legacy brethren are not your enemy.
