Bye Bye Woerthless

[KeroseneSnorter]

We have a national union to deal with national issues. Your quote above discusses what is happening to you.. specifically you. That is important. What is also important is what is happening on the national level and now in the near future, the international level. We have IFALPA for a reason. What happend internationally and nationally effects us all on the local level. Those effects are accurately detialed by you above.

The solution to the problems can be found on the local, national and international level.

Right now, most ALPA pilots only know about local issues and what they know is often misguided. ALPA pilots must getinformed on the national level. the Capital hill issues. And now the Int'l issues too.

As far as pay. In another thread I broke down the national salaries. If you really think the issues is over compensation, then think again. In addtion, Prater just accepted the same compensation package as DW minus 25K.

The issue isn't National salaries. the isssue is membership effectiveness.





DW did lose a connection with the membership. But the ALPA national officers are polticians. just like your MEC and LEC guys. Do we want a pilot dealing with polticians in DC or a politican who understands pilots dealing with other politicans in DC.

If you are sued within the avaition industry do you want a pilot prentending to be a lawyer or do you want a lawyer prentending to be a pilot?





Eitherway, none of us should be fodder for the other.





JS is a major issue. I for one could not do this job without it. Thus i would have no job, no retirement and a 100% pay cut. JS is just one of many critical issues that have to be managed.

Decimated contracts? Why is that ALPA Nationals fault? When the pilots on the local level authorized thier NC to engage. And when the NC delivered a decimated contract the local pilots voted clearly with a yes. Why does everyone overlook this and try to blame ALPA National?



HOW? Do you think DW couldn't or wouldn't? If he could then HOW. or are we blindly putting faith into Prater becuase he isn't DW.

This is a shared responsibility. We can't just pay our dues and maybe vote and hope.

We have got to be engaged in our own careers.



Put out of work by ALPA? How is that? Did you apply to ALPA? Did ALPA send you your termination notice?

The salary issue again? How do the salaries come into play when the membership voted by majority to accpet these decimated contracts? The gutted contracts orginated on the local level and were finalized on the local level.

check out the salary info on the next post.............

Your statements, specifically the ones about how "the problem is on a local level" only adds strength to the fact that we (ALPA) has a serious serious fragmentation problem. As I said before, and by your own admission above, we no longer have a "National Union" we have 50 or 60 local unions all doing what is best for them, which all put together is destroying the profession completly.

Back in the day this system worked for the most part, but back then we only had one seniority list flying per paint job. As it is now we have in some cases 8 or 10 MEC's per paint job. Clearly the stance that "National is for National concerns" is no longer valid. Unless we can bridge the groups together by strong, and maybe even more controlling, national leadership the profession will only continue to decay. There needs to be in place better guidance and possibly even some basic "Minimums" so to speak when it comes to negotiating contracts. Even something as simple as common payrates for all aircraft of specific types flown under the same brand name. I.E. All RJ's flown by United, or USAir are paid the same..regardless of which contract carrier is flying them, that would go a long way to avoiding the whipsaw that we currently have, Mgmt. would not be so hot on having 8 contract carriers if they knew they all had to be paid the same. Their ability to leverage one group against another would greatly decrease. In the old days when we had 20 or 30 brand names it was much easier to control a "minimum baseline" so to speak, as it is currently set up it is nearly impossible.

Will the above ideas work? Maybe, maybe not, but we need to begin to think out of the box here, mgmt. sure is. They come up with new ways to screw us daily and yet ALPA, a group that used to hold real power and influence in the industry has been reduced to a quivering mass of excuses and pass the buck mentalities. "It is a local issue" is a prime example.

Am I an expert in politics? No. Do I have all the answers? Of course not.

I am just a guy that pays dues, attends meetings, and moves metal through the sky from city to city. You know.........ALPA.....or at least I used to be, these last few years I have simply been reduced to a number in a disfunctional union with no direction. I have actually been removed from ALPA web boards simply because I was a member of a group that ALPA leadership didn't want to hear from (furloughed) Apparantly we asked too many questions of our local leadership and they didn't like having to answer for the decisions that they made.

ALPA is self destructing by following their current path, surely you can see this Rez, if not then you will be one of the ones sitting there among the decimated ruins wondering what the heck happened. Of course I am sure even then there will be a group of you saying "It is a local issue"..............

 

[PCL_128]

Kerosene, the ironic thing is that the concerns you have expressed are shared by none other than Captain Woerth himself. You could practically have written your post above based on his report to the BOD on the opening day last week.

The question isn't "what are the problems?". Everyone, including the National Officers, agree on the problems already. No, the question is, "how do we fix the problems?". Everyone has lots of complaints and issues to voice, but no one ever offers any solutions.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Kerosene, the ironic thing is that the concerns you have expressed are shared by none other than Captain Woerth himself. You could practically have written your post above based on his report to the BOD on the opening day last week.

The question isn't "what are the problems?". Everyone, including the National Officers, agree on the problems already. No, the question is, "how do we fix the problems?". Everyone has lots of complaints and issues to voice, but no one ever offers any solutions.

Then the question is why did he not at least TRY to address the problems? It is not like these things came about in the past few months. During USAirs BK and wholesale gutting, national was but a small side note in the process.

Since it was the first, a slow reaction to it is understandable. But then UAL suffered the exact same process, followed by others until now it is DAL that is being destroyed. Slow reaction to massive problems in this arena will have the same effect as it does on a battlefield.......entire armies wiped out.

Just because it has "never been done that way" has cost many nations during times of conflict, just as it is costing us now.

I have but one simple question for ALPA national......Why do they suppose that of the three most healthy and money making airlines left in the country, with the best pay and QOL, two of them are NOT ALPA? Additionally the one that is ALPA has zero ALPA represented competitors of comprable size in their field (Home to Home package delivery) (UPS, SWA, Fedex) Add Jetblue to the mix and you have four, though the jury is still out on their long term success due to their youth.

I submit that the answer is in large part due to ALPA's own making, and the self consuming eating of our own that ALPA is allowing and even helping to thrive.

Until we address the problems with the wholesale outsourcing, non of the fatigue studies or anything else will matter, they will be rendered irrelevant.

And the only way to do that is for ALPA national to take a very close and concered interest ing the "Local issues"

 

[PCL_128]

Then the question is why did he not at least TRY to address the problems?

He has tried to address these problems. Unfortunately, the President can't force individual MECs to hold the line. These MECs and pilot groups voted on these contracts, so they got them. That's not the fault of Captain Woerth. Trying to blame National for that is ridiculous.

The problem is that Captain Woerth would like have made ALPA a more centralized organization (he's said so many times), but he can't do it by himself. Change of that scope within the Association has to come from the BOD. The problem with this, of course, is that the BOD is composed of the very same reps that voted these concessionary contracts in. Are they going to vote away their power and give it to National? Not likely. The best way to fix this problem is to wait until the industry is in a good position, like it was in the late 90s through early 2001. During that time, faith and trust in the Association was at an all-time high. Pattern bargaining was working great. That's when you can get support for real change. That means you have to wait for the circumstances to improve to make progress on reforming the Association. Trying to reform the organization while the profession is in a fight for its very survival is not reasonable. Captain Woerth understood this. It's a shame that he won't have the chance to see it through, because he really did have the vision to pull it off. Now we have to wait and see if Captain Prater has the same abilities.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Trying to reform the organization while the profession is in a fight for its very survival is not reasonable.

I guess that is the difference between you and I. I do not see us being able to save the profession without the reform. Not with hoards of new 500 to 1000 hour pilots coming in willing to do anything just to fly a jet. By the time they "Mature" in the industry, it is already too late.

To most of us out on the line, "reasonable" left the building a while back. Along with the RJ, pensions, scope, and brand names. On our current path there will never be another "Good time".

 

[Contract]

There is only one thing to do for this profession. Most will not like it, and others will only profess their faith to improving this work industry, all the while raping one another along the way. So here it is Boys and Girls. If you stop flying and stay still they will have to figure out a way to swat you like a fly. It can only be done just as it is done to a fly. Fast and Furious.

 

[Contract]

Rereading my fly, I seem to be confused with McFly. Either way, get it done or stop complaining. In the end, we will all have to determine our own outcome. So lets get it on !!!!!! Whos on First???

 

[Contract]

No more BEER for Whos on First.

 

[JP4user]

Not with hoards of new 500 to 1000 hour pilots coming in willing to do anything just to fly a jet. By the time they "Mature" in the industry, it is already too late.

PCL resembles that remark very closely. Don't let his union bravado and knowledge fool you. He is the epitomy of what you described above by buying his job with that pft scab operation Gulfstream.

I agree with you completly about ALPA. It is broken and I believe beyond repair unless radical thought and change is implemented.

Rez is a lost cause. When you sift through the meat of his replies they all end up being the same theme. The elite in ALPA need to be paid these exorbetant salaries so they can weild their self proclaimed and imagined clout in D.C. Further, all the problems are the memberships fault for non involvement and there is no duty to lead by or set an example from National.

 

[hoover]

If the airline can't afford it, they shut down. If an INDIVIDUAL ALPA carrier is able to negotiate more, so be it. But there MUST be a MINIMUM wage base established.

Yes that is a great idea. Until your airline shuts down