Astar buying Polar

[Whistlin' Dan]

Dan, we are 100% behind our union and our MEC, which I may add is the best MEC we have had to date. Much better than one of our previous MEC chairman who served in the late '90's and insisted on being a "full time" MEC chairman and drew premium pay while the line pilots got dropped to min guarantee. That same MEC chairman never even bothered to look inside of one of our cockpits for 8 years, and even the secretary at the MEC office use to laugh about ever seeing him. He just sat at home and took credit for other people's hard work.

Our MEC are all line pilots, and they fully understand what our life is all about. And unlike this previous MEC chairman I speak of, they don't have ambitions to jump over to management at the first opportunity (nor would they lie on their resumes to get one of those jobs).

We are 100% united and back our union and MEC.

I have some familiarity with your present leadership, and I agree, it probably IS the right group to have in there under the present circumstances. That's why I was somewhat taken aback when a previous post indicated that the union might not be doing everything they could to have those pilots (there are actually several) re-instated. You've got some street fighters in there now, and that's a good thing. You're gonna need 'em.

As for the the MEC chairman of which you speak, I guess it's safe to assume that he won't be getting a Christmas card from you this year? Just try to remember, however, that it was under his leadership and guidance that the pilots of DHL/Astar secured what was, at the time, an industry-leading contract. A contract WITH furlough protections, I might add. All that was done without pickets, job-actions, or the taking of hostages. I don't know how much he flew the line during the time he was in office, or what kind of office hours he kept while in town. What I do know is that he gave the pilots of DHL a lot of credibility and presence at ALPA headquarters, which is, after all, a large part of being an MEC Chairman. It was under his watch that DHL actually became, for a short while, a pretty good place to work.

I'm going to refrain from commenting any further on this forum about specific individuals. Let's face it, it's pretty easy to ascertain who they are. It's not so easy to ascertain who you are, or the veracity of the things that are either said or inferred about them. For the purposes of this discussion, let's maintain our focus on the issues, not on the people.

As fellow aviation professionals, I would hope you will respond likewise.