FDJ2 said:
And the USAIR pilots don't have a gun pointed at their head when they need to negotiate away more of their code flying? There are tough choices to be made by all. Life's tough, get use to it.
FDJ2,
It is not what you call the "tough choices" that are at issue. As you point out we all have to make thodr from time to time. The USAir pilots may well have a "gun pointed at their head". So did the AA pilots, the UAL pilots and soon to come the DAL and NWA pilots. However there is a difference.
In the case(s) of all those "major" airlines, the "gun" is being held and pointed by management and the threat is bankruptcy or pending bankruptcy and a reduction in pay.
Contrastingly,
in the case of the regional airlines, the gun is being held and pointed by the labor union that they pay to represent their interests. The threat is the loss of everything. A very different scenario.
We are all "used to it" when management attempts to coerce employees into giving up their compensation packages, work rules and benefits or when the union tries to coerce management into providing more compensation, better work rules and improved benefits. That's the name of the game.
What we are not "used to" and should never get used to are efforts by the labor union to which we belong to coerce or even to extort from its own membership their seniority and their jobs, and give them to different members of the very same labor union who are "preferred" by the leaders of that labor union. That is what ALPA has done and is doing.
Here for your information and that of others are the definitions of the terms "coerce" and "extort"
"Coerce: 1 : to restrain or dominate by force 2 : to compel to an act or choice
3 : to bring about by force or threat."
"Extort: to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power."
Note please, that the difference is very subtle and in practical application soes not exist . It may be debated that coercion is unethical but technically legal. It may not be debated that extortion is illegal. I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether ALPA is guilty of both.
In all of these "proceedings" and "proposals" the intent of the National Union is clear. It has decided that certain of its members are preferred over the remainder of its members. It is determined and consistently engaged, in a concerted effort to tranfer the work from one group of members to the other.
When management does this, we resist with vigor. When our own union does it, those who are not numbered among the preferred class are expected to both acquiese in silence and applaud overtly the predatory behavior of their union . You support the union's actions because you would be the beneficiary of them. That's as simple as it is. We oppose them because they threaten our very survival.
I have two questions for you: 1) What will your reaction be when one of the regional MECs makes a proposal to the management of your Company that includes an offer to operate some of the aircraft you traditionally fly, for lower compensation, with fewer work rules and lesser benefits? 2) What will ALPA do when such a proposal is made? Will it vigorously support and assit the efforts of the regional MEC to make it come to pass or will it oppose it with all its strength and call its makers robbers?
If ALPA continues on its present course, what I infer will eventually happen. It is not a question of IF, it is only a question of when. When it does, no amount of coercion or extortion will prevent the chaos that ensues. The lid will be off Pandora's Box and management's dream will have come true. The union will implode.
I don't want this, but I see it coming. I speak of it in the hope that the people that run our union will take off the blinders and return to the proper exercise of their responsibilities before it is too late. If we do not stop this while we can we will all destroy each other in the coming civil war. What you see now is but a border skirmish compared to what will come.
One thing is certain however, people like me will never surrender to people like you. The struggle will go on until one of us emerges victorious. You and yours and ALPA all have to decide just how much the odds are really in your favor. While you're doing that remember. "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Remember too, that once Humpty Dumpty falls, there will be no putting it together again.
The noise that you and ALPA are hearing is not the Master Caution, it is the Master Warning! It cannot be silenced until the problem is corrected.
