quote by tico
Bottom line for you Deli and the rest of NWA ALPA......You are looked to as the leaders as it relates to Unions at your airline....Had you chosen to HONOR amfa's position so to would have every other union on your property...A PEB would have convened against the wishes of your management and caused all of you to continue to work...the result of that decision would be that there would be no more 50,000.00 cleaners at your airline and your QUALIFIED mechanics would make less than they do now and NWA would not be preparing for bankruptcy and more importantly several years of union busting planning would have been destroyed probably causing a complete expulsion of your current mgmnt. ranks and bringing some hope to the people of NWA that a team with ability and vision and patience would be assembled to return NWA to some semblance of it's former self..........
But that did not happen, instead your MEC responded with a typical selfish and ego driven plan......We will not HONOR our mechanics position....of course with a lack of leadership on ALPA's part, all of the other unions fell in line and helped complete your ceo's master plan.....Replace the mechanics with scabs who will do what they are told, who will never organize in the future and will accept cuts to their meager pay and benefit plan in the future without a whimper.....knowing that ALPA will not help the flight attendants, cut there ranks by 50% and replace all foreign flying with cheap asian workers who culturally will always do what they are told.... when the remaining F?A's try to strike they will be locked out and replaced with all ready trained scabs who again will do as they are told and will also accept future pay and benefit cuts without a whimper and who will never organize as well........which leaves ALPA... not a problem for Steenland and company....drive the ship into the safe harbor of bankruptcy.....your precious pension will go like a fart in the wind followed by scope....that enables them to furlough another third of your pilot group and send that domestic connection to the emb170,s and 190,s that are now configured with first and business class as well as coach being flown by 2 pilots and 2 f/a's that when combined barely clear 100,00.00 for the year all with no pension and hardly any benefits to speak of... leaving ALPA with transcon positioning for international flying..... good deal for NWA but you guys will be doing it for 40% less than you do it now and career progression will be as stagnant as a good frog pond........Personally I could give rip about what happens to you guys now but I work for an airline that heavily code shares with you guys and has an AMFA unit. And thanks to your leaderships incredible short- sightedness, we will now all have to fight the same dang fight that you could have ended...our mgmnt goons will be drooling over Steenland like a god, trying to learn all they can about how to perfect the art of EGO and GREED...the difference will be that our alpa unit will honor what amfa or afa or any of the other unions choose to do as it concerns a legal strike......and one more thing.....no more riding in the cockpit for you guys when I am at work period and I am far from the only one who feels that way....you guys have brought shame upon your house now live with it..........
Hey Tico,
Our mech's union leadership was on drugs. Alpa told them so. Their position was unsupportable and damaging to an overall better plan. It was NW ALPA'S view that a PEB would not occour. It was one of many things that ALPA soul searched over. Who are you and why should I consider your statement that GWB would have put a PEB in place? Are you on his staff? No, you are just another guy with an opinion just like me. Do not throw around unsupportable facts to pump up your argument.
We are still in a position to bring on the strike that will bring about all your other scenarios. I call them scenarios because they are just that. They are not factual "done deals" My son goes off onto flights of fantasy like you do. Many times I need to reel him in. The FA's are in a better position than the mechanics. They actually can shut down the airline and all that you envision may occour ayway. AMFA had no weapon that mgmt was afraid of. The split between AMFA and ALPA occoured about 2 years ago when it was apparent AMFA was whacked. The FA's are still in a position to integrate a plan with ALPA and the IAM. Now that they have witnessed the rape and murder of AMFA, I think they will see the wisdom of a 93' style coordinated effort. (By the way, do you remember the success story by NW Alpa in 93'? These are the same guys. Give them credit but remember they are human)
Is your airline Continental? If so, this current slide in our industry could be attributed to your companies MEC for taking in the SCABS from EAL. Is your company Delta? Then how about your proud companies culpability in introducing RJ'S into this industry? Are you Air France? Then....well...your French. The point is--all our code share partners pilots groups have something that led "us" (meaning us as pilots) to our current condition.
Steenland is just slightly more of a prick than your guys are. If it wasn't Steenland, it would be your guys. This is something that is going to happen and must be faced by pilots at legacy carriers and it just happens to be us. I am putting my belief in NWAALPA because they actually have a track record to point to.
Yeah, your management is going to try it on you if it works. Our management got the idea by looking at the LCCs/regionals and pointing to that as the state of the industry. How are you going to stop the LCCs? There is no union there. Are you going to kick them out of your jumpseat? No more Jetblue? How about the RJ drivers? Oh yeah, they are just doing their job. How about you try this TICO.... how about withholding your jumpseat from NW pilots after we have our at bats. Why do you not research the situation between AMFA and ALPA before you go condeming us. It does not sound like this will work, because your "flight of fantasy" kind of tags you as a guy who gets spun up without a bunch of fact--and since that is the case, I do not want your jump seat because you scare me.