a fairly good rebuttal
i think it's a matter of which will come first -- i happen to think pilots are dying for some leadership...
Agreed. Where does the leadership come from? Do we buy ALPA leaders from a mail order catalog? The internet? Where do they actually come from?
Again... I think we need to re-examine our expectations... Why do you think ALPA should be doing what you expect rather than what they are...
Also...
jke406 likes to belittle volunteer work, but how much do you want your dues to be so you don't feel compelled or guilt tripped into volunteering...?? 10% 20% of your income?
they are finding that the alpa institution does not inspire them. They feel they are swimming upstream.
I don't doubt they feel that way.... but what is ALPA to do... Its like a kid growing up with the rich kids thinking his Dad is loaded only to find out his Dad is really the chauffer and makes 30K a year...
DW ran concession after concession after scope release after scope release= should he have kept his job? I don't care how tied his hands were- if we didn't oust him- what kind of message would that have sent management?
Again... I hate to say it but a misaligned expectation on your part... the pilot groups of those CBA's agreed via democracy for those concessions. If DW said no, then it wouldn't be democracy...
Prater at least has the very real negotiating leverage of saying "hey-i don't have a choice, they got rid of the last guy- i'm not going down that route".
No he doesn't. Respectfully, justify your expectations.
Prater has a learning curve though- He really screwed up on age 65 and waffling on the nic award.
agreed...
It's not that we're never happy- it's that we're not happy w/ what's been going on in the RJ decade. the leadership has let our union look out for only the very senior and the very big, but has made promises to us all.
What promises? Can you reference them? Who made them?
Let's get back to volunteerism. Say for example at the next LEC meeting the only two guys running are an egomanic and a management suck up. You know they both suck and are going to do more damage than good.... what do you do?
This whole democracy thing that our founding fathers burdened us with... is so inconvienent....
Yet it is quite paradoxial.... As Americans we love to scoff and chide the socialist, dictators and communist. We reject them becuase we are free loving democratic people.... but when you look at unions and HOA's... all models of democracy set forth by our F. Fathers we fall short and flat on our faces.... all while at the same time we complain that our unions and neighborhoods suck. What's up with that?
As Americans and members of the greatest democratic nation in the world don't we have an obligation to particapte in democracy? Or is that obligation also a luxury to be apathetic?
That's not inspiring. I think good leadership happens first = then involvement comes. You think involvement should happen on it's own volition. I think that's unrealistic.
Where did the leadership come from? That is the big question. The 2006 BOD knew they could elected a new President that had been out of the game for 15+ years because the apathetic membership would do nothing....
The reason why Ghandi and MLKjr were so effective is because they had masses of people behind them... and they weren't even elected...
On May 7th 2006 we marched the Mall in Wash DC. Only 100 pilots showed up and they were the same ol suspects... the same old elected officers & leaders, Nat'l guys, (JP, PR, CB and BC), the same ol' MEC chairman, the same ol choir...... there were hardly any regular line pilots. Why?
If you think about thousands of pilots in uniform like we were... it would have gotten attention.
Now...tell me... this is for your career... why was no one there? Cause ALPA sucks? Is that spite at your own expense?
But let's get back to your comment:
That's not inspiring. I think good leadership happens first = then involvement comes.
So how long are you going to wait for good leadership? are you willing to wait for decades? 20 years? 30? Your career will be over by then? I don't know... I mean its your career....
Rez-- a simple question-- if minority leadership is such a problem- why hasn't someone in alpa leadership mandated the vote?
ie: require it.
Clearly state what you need and why you need it. All i hear is vagueness.
A mandated vote would not be democracy. it would be a dictatorship.
Minority leadership isn't the problem. Minority membership particaption and minority democracy is the problem... are the needs of the many spoken for by the few?