Alpa..what a great union

[SkyWench]

http://www.unionfacts.com/unions/unionOfficers.cfm?id=235072

 

[Quack]

Look at how much the top friggin secretary makes...what a joke. I can answer phones, maybe I should make the switch.

 

[SLFLYHI]

Look at how much the top friggin secretary makes...what a joke. I can answer phones, maybe I should make the switch.

Yeah, and she's saying "what a friggin joke - I can push the AP button on an RJ, maybe I should make the switch"

Get a life. Stop being jealous of others. When you have 20+ years in at your regional, you'll make more than her. This topic has been beat to death.

 

[j41driver]

Yeah, and she's saying "what a friggin joke - I can push the AP button on an RJ, maybe I should make the switch"

Get a life. Stop being jealous of others. When you have 20+ years in at your regional, you'll make more than her. This topic has been beat to death.

Proof that we are our own worst enemy.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Atleast ALPA supports its memberships desires and is opposed to repealing the age 60 rule. SWAPA is supporting repeal even though the membership doesn't want it to go away. Go figure.

 

[Green]

Those salaries are high but compared to corporate america they are definitely not out of line. Take total compensation of the highest paid ten managers at any airline in this country and I think you will find that Alpa is nowhere near their level. Duanne makes about twice what a top captain in this country earns. Most CEOs seem to make atleast ten times what their non-management workers earn and probably more like 50 times.

But I do think Alpa should be sharing in the pain and imposing paycuts on the national leaders untill we start seeing some contractual gains once again. Maybe we could tie thier pay to a percentage of the top five legacies or something.

 

[Huck]

May I humbly suggest that, just because an RJ flight attendant is willing to work for 18k a year, the rest of the country might not be?

My neighbor down the road, 28 years old with a high school education, owns two small chicken houses and some cows, and he cuts a little hay on the side. He made 120k last year.

My kids' godparents live in a $700,000 house in Atlanta. He's a medical supply rep and she stays home. They're both 34.

My brother manages a theater shop for a big private university. Last year, after 15 years of professional flying, I finally made more money than him.

By the way, two of the people on that list are friends of mine, so way to go publishing their names. I'm sure that website is real pro-labor.

 

[81Horse]

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two prison nurses and a state trooper top the list of Ohio employees who earned the most overtime pay last year.

Because of a nursing shortage in state institutions, nurses Bart Martelli and Maurice Franck each averaged more than 40 hours of extra work every week in 2005.

Overtime pay topped $100,000 for each nurse, more than doubling their salaries, according to a Columbus Dispatch analysis of state payroll records.
Martelli's pay increased to $198,426 from $80,572. Franck made $196,257, up from $86,580.

Now, I'm not sayin' these nurses don't deserve what they made (80-hour workweeks?!). But a little perspective on ALPA salaries (in a high COL area with lots of opportunity for administrative types) couldn't hurt.

I think this is the fourth or fifth time the list has been posted here, BTW.

And the custodian is only paid, what -- under 16K? C'mon -- I've been to Herndon, and the place is spotless!

<Edit to add: SkyWench, what do you care anyway? Are you an ALPA member?>

 

[radarlove]

The Center for Union Facts

From SourceWatch

(Redirected from Center for Union Facts)
The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. It is part of lobbyist Rick Berman's family of front groups including the Employment Policies Institute.
The domain name www.unionfacts.com was registered to Berman & Co. in May 2005.
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")[showhide] 1 Personnel

2 Funding

3 Contact details

4 External Links

4.1 The Center for Union Facts Media Releases
4.2 Articles about The Center for Union Facts


[edit]
Personnel

• Rick Berman, Executive Director. [1] (http://www.unionfacts.com/news.cfm?id=10)

The contact person on the initial media release is Sarah Longwell who has worked in public relations for Rick Berman at his Employment Policies Institute as well as for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and its Collegiate Network.
[edit]
Funding

United Press International noted that "the group`s spokesman refused to release the names of its donors or say where its funding came from." [2] (http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1097299.php)
Berman told Bloomberg reporter, Kim Bowman, that he had raised "about $2.5 million from companies, trade organizations and individuals, whom he declined to identify." [3] (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/259366_antiunion14.html)
[edit]
Contact details

The Center for Union Facts
PO Box 27455
Washington, DC 20038
phone: 202-463-7106
cellphone: 717-386-9048
Sarah Longwell <longwell AT unionfacts.com>
Website: http://www.unionfacts.com/
[edit]
External Links

[edit]
The Center for Union Facts Media Releases

• "The Center for Union Facts Launches Multimillion-Dollar Campaign and Comprehensive Website to Expose (http://www.unionfacts.com/news.cfm?id=10)", Media Release, January 10, 2006.
• The Center for Union Facts, "The Center for Union Facts Positions Huge Dinosaur Outside AFL-CIO (http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=60890)", News Release, February 13, 2006.

[edit]
Articles about The Center for Union Facts

• "Anti-union group launches media campaign (http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1097299.php)",United Press International, February 13, 2006
• Amy Joyce, "Full-Page Ads Launch Anti-Union Drive - Lobbyist Aims to Show Labor Groups to be 'Duplicitous' (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301913.html)", Washington Post, February 14, 2006.
• Steven Greenhouse, "Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html)", New York Times, February 14, 2006.
• Kim Chapman, "New group launches anti-union drive (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/259366_antiunion14.html)", Seattle Post Intelligencer, February 14, 2006. (This is a syndicated Bloomberg story).
• Kris Maher, "Taking on the AFL-CIO (http://online.wsj.com/public/articl...y455VbL0xk_20070214.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top)", "Incident Report", Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2006.

 

[AVoiceOfReason]

May I humbly suggest that, just because an RJ flight attendant is willing to work for 18k a year, the rest of the country might not be?

My neighbor down the road, 28 years old with a high school education, owns two small chicken houses and some cows, and he cuts a little hay on the side. He made 120k last year.

My kids' godparents live in a $700,000 house in Atlanta. He's a medical supply rep and she stays home. They're both 34.

My brother manages a theater shop for a big private university. Last year, after 15 years of professional flying, I finally made more money than him.

By the way, two of the people on that list are friends of mine, so way to go publishing their names. I'm sure that website is real pro-labor.

Huck, how many of your examples are represented by unions? I bet none of them are union jobs. Here we are represented by a union with a President who is making over half a million dollars, and many non-union people make more than us. Why is it that the only highly paid airline pilot is the President of a largely inneffective union?

 

[AVoiceOfReason]

Atleast ALPA supports its memberships desires and is opposed to repealing the age 60 rule. SWAPA is supporting repeal even though the membership doesn't want it to go away. Go figure.

Even more reason some of us are mad. Having someone making over half a million, with an ALPA pension on top, use my dues to lobby the FAA to continue to make me retire at 60 is unacceptable.

 

[Chest Rockwell]

Atleast ALPA supports its memberships desires and is opposed to repealing the age 60 rule. SWAPA is supporting repeal even though the membership doesn't want it to go away. Go figure.

Bill,

I think that SWAPA has had 2 votes regarding age 60 and both passed.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Huck, how many of your examples are represented by unions? I bet none of them are union jobs. Here we are represented by a union with a President who is making over half a million dollars, and many non-union people make more than us. Why is it that the only highly paid airline pilot is the President of a largely inneffective union?

"Ineffective" is your characterization...not a fact. Since I happen to be happy with the services provided by ALPA, it's an issue worthy of discussion; not conclusion.

The mis-leading numbers posted by this anti-Labor group are intended for the gullible. Please don't think that just because it's posted on the internet, it's all true.

The totals for all of those employees reflects money spent in their name...but not included in their compensation. For example, these nitwits are including unemployment insurance payments, medical insurance premiums, dental insurance premiums, pension contributions, per diem, money spent on airline tickets, and other items that are assigned a "value" under the DeLay-initiated LM-2 reporting requirements passed a couple of years ago.

A few years ago my company sent me a statement that showed the "total compensation" and "value" of my job. According to their calculations I was receiving compensation of over $300,000 a year! They included the value of the non-rev travel benefits I had, and all of the stuff listed above. Since my actual compensation was less than half of their interpretation, their propaganda became joke fodder at my house and in the crew room.

Add up all the cost you represent to your company (using their perspective) and it's easy to see that pilots are paid waaaaay too much! Naturally, the management toads who've led many of us to Red Ink Land aren't compensated nearly enough. Want proof? Go to unionfacts.com...where the truth lives!

(barf!)

 

[81Horse]

Thanks for raking through the muck to find out where the list originated, Razor.

 

[ATRedneck]

That list is made to appear as though that's the staff at ALPA National, but I saw almost a dozen names that work at the local MEC and are paid from the MEC budget, not by national.

 

[Brian]

I wouldn't sleep with those guys at the top for 80 Gs.....I think the secretaries are woerth every penny!

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

This is the fourth or fifth attempt, using an anti labor, union busting website to bash ALPA with spin.

People think they got a one up manship on alpa, then along come the level headed guys like Occam and ruin the party.....

Sheep.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

In U.S. airline fights, pilots often the last workers standing

Source: Comtex News Network (Associated Press Worldstream)

Airlines are a big union industry, and the big dog in every airline union fight is the pilots. So it's not surprising that they ended up as the last holdouts in the pay-cut negotiations at Northwest and Delta airlines.

The biggest pilot union, the Air Line Pilots Association, has a reputation for being a tough negotiator, but the list of its largest members reads like a who's-who of recent airline bankruptcies _ US Airways Group Inc., UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp.

On Friday, Northwest and its pilots reached a pay-cut deal. Delta's request to throw out its pilot contract was headed for a mediator.

To stay alive, bankrupt airlines have leaned _ hard _ on employees for pay cuts and more flexible work rules. Pilots, who can make $150,000 (?124,800) or more, have been a prime target, putting ALPA in one of its toughest fights since its founding in 1931.

ALPA isn't showing any signs of backing away from the fight. President Duane Woerth rallied Northwest pilots in Minneapolis on Feb. 23, telling them that the airline industry is poised for better times and that they'll be a part of it.

Mechanics and flight attendants generally haven't been able to shut airlines down with strikes. Pilots can. And they know it.

"They are hard and sophisticated negotiators," said Ben Hirst, who was Northwest's vice president for labor relations during a round of concessions in 1993.

"The difficulty in negotiating with them is, if they believe their position is right, they really will take it to the mat," Hirst said. "There's a lot of testosterone."

ALPA can throw a phalanx of lawyers, analysts and actuaries at high-stakes negotiations like the ones last week with Delta and Northwest airlines.

The pilots union has a history "of looking at the airline from an economic standpoint, from an investment standpoint, of really trying to understand the business they're negotiating with," Hirst said.

Woerth said several full-time staffers were working with Northwest union negotiators in New York, and about 60 staffers worked full-time on Northwest talks at ALPA headquarters, with plans to shift their attention to Delta talks next.

But all those union experts can't force airlines to make money. Older airlines (the ones started before government deregulation in the late 1970s) have been in deep trouble in recent years, pummeled by a punishing mix of terrorism fears, rising fuel prices, and discount carriers who grab lucrative routes and often pay their employees less.

The only time that was nearly as bad for ALPA was when Continental broke a pilots' strike in 1983, said George Hopkins, a recently retired airline labor historian at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois.

"But I think now is worse. At least there was a semblance of congressional support for labor unions in the 1980s," he said.

And he said pilots face a danger at least as bad as pay cuts now _ slashed pensions. Federal rules force pilots to retire at age 60, before they're eligible for Social Security or Medicare. So their pension is crucial to their retirement, but those payments are slashed when bankrupt carriers slough off their pensions on the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

While ALPA is the largest pilots' union, it isn't dominant. Pilots at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines _ the United States' largest _ and Southwest Airlines Co. each have their own unions. And many of the newer discount carriers are not ALPA-represented.

"ALPA has been slowly eroding in overall power," said Alan Bender, who teaches airline labor relations at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. And a loosening of rules barring foreign airlines from flying within the U.S. could hand more pilot jobs to non-ALPA pilots, he said.

Hopkins, the historian, said ALPA hasn't had a friend in politics since Republicans took over Congress in 1994, and unions generally have been representing a shrinking share of the work force.

"I have a good deal of respect for Woerth. He's a keen student of the history of his union and his profession," Hopkins said.

"He understands where the industry has been, and where it's at right now. But I don't think anybody knows where it's going."