General Lee said:
I like coming home from a 4 day trip and reading a post from Surplus1 pretty much stating that I am a Dalpa "plant" that is trying to dissiminate or spread lies to everyone. Hey Surplus1, I am really just a line pilot that "listens" to other pilots on the line, and I occasionally talk to an MEC member in the lounge. I wasn't at the meeting between Buergy and Lawson---I have no clue what happened there. But, I can speak for many of our current pilots---and I know what they are saying. When I say that there is a lot of disdain for the Comair people in general (even though it may be misdirected at the pilots), that isn't good for you guys. You have an image problem thanks to "stiffing" our furloughs---or atleast that is what a lot of our guys believe. That really is too bad, but don't accuse me of things that are totally false---I just give my opinions, right or wrong.
Bye Bye---General Lee
General,
Believe it or not I don't have a personal problem with you. In fact I admire your tenacious defense of Delta's furloughed pilots and I am sorry, for them, that you appear to be the only one willing to publicly and consistently defend them. If your MEC would do the same, instead of pursuing its political agendas against Comair pilots they might get some help.
I don't think you're a DMEC "plant", but you do spend a great deal of time repeating allegations made by your MEC in the context of their being "truths". You can believe what they tell you if you want to, that's your choice. The fact that you do believe doesn't make it so.
In your posts you never fail to echo their threats towards Comair pilots, you advocate and support black-balling of Comair pilots, and constantly attempt to remind us of what Delta pilots supposedly did for us that you would like us to repay.
If you feel that can be construed as "spreading lies" about us, you are not far from being right. When you repeat what you have been told you are "spreading it". When what you are told is less than true an you repeat it, you are "spreading a lie". What I said was that you "echo the positions of your MEC" and sir, you do.
I know you are a line pilot because you said so, and I believe you. I also think that you actually and honestly believe the things that you have been told. That doesn't make it so. Since I do know that some of what you have been "told" by your MEC is NOT factual you are repeating false information. Whether or not it is intentional is moot, the effect is the same. It does not improve the situation.
Like you admit about yourself, I have also said that I too was not present in the meeting between Buergy and Lawson. However, I would venuture a guess that I know Lawson far better that you know Buergy. You may have met Buergy (so have I) and you may even have flown with him once or twice, and you of course knew that he was your MEC Chairman. The point is you don't really "know" Buergy (correct me if that is wrong).
In contrast I have known Lawson, on a personal basis, for more than 10 years. I knew him well long before he ever became the MEC Chairman. I have flown with him not once, but many times, before he became a captain. I have interacted with him socially in the past, been to his home, know his wife and his children. Therefore, when he says something in public, it is a lot easier for me to accept the credibility of his statements than when Buergy tells you something or you "listen" to what he is telling 9,000 other Delta pilots most of whom he has never even met.
You are getting your information from your MEC's propaganda machine, your crew lounge banter and possible occassional encounter with your Chairman.
I also get information from my MEC's propaganda, crew lounge banter and direct communication with my representatives many of whom are my friends. Our small size by comparison to your large size makes that possible. You are much more removed from what your MEC does than I am from what my MEC does. I have been lucky enough to know personally all but one of Comair's former MEC Chairmen. This difference is not your fault nor is it mine, it's just the nature of the beast. It still gives me quite an advantage with respect to the probable credibility of what you hear vs what I hear. I doubt you've been at Delta long enough to know the names of more than 3 MEC Chairmen, let alone to know them personally. Sometimes being small has its advantages.
When you say that there is a level of "disdain" for Comair pilots within your group, I agree. What you seem unwilling to accept is the probability that there is an even greater disdain for Delta pilots within the Comair group and by a much higher percentage of that group.
We have about 530 pilots hired within the last three years. Within that component rests 90% of the pilots that are enamoured by the idea of joining your group. That is the same component that is concerned about your black-balling threats and the rest of the anti-Comair rhetoric that flows from you guys. The rest of us know your modus operandi and have been living with your MEC's ever changing agenda with respect to Comair pilots for years.
Most of us in the upper 2/3 of our group know your colors, know what you have done and what you have been trying to do over time. We are also reasonably well informed about what your MEC would like to do in the future. Most of it is not favorable to us.
One of the things that we know is that most of the anti-Comair "disdain", as you put it, comes from your less than 4-year group, the majority of which is furloughed. So that's about 12% of your total group. Another 15% in the upper echelons barely knows if we exist and couldn't care less one way or the other (excepting the union politicians). The remaining 60% is essentially insulated from what we do, with some paying attention and most typically blase'.
Perhaps I'm all wet, but I would guess that the majority of your group does NOT hold us in "disdain", they just don't care one way or the other.
That boils down to this. The bottom 15 % of your group hates us. The bottom 30% of our group loves you. The upper 2/3 of your group pays us little concern one way or the other. The upper 2/3 of our group knows that you are not our friends. Your politicians, of their own choosing, are our sworn enemies.
If there is in fact a growing tide of resentment against Comair pilots in the Delta pilot group, where does it come from? Answer, your MEC. They have an agenda that is in step with the ALPA agenda and the ALPA agenda is not favorable to regional carriers.
The most anti-regional MEC's in ALPA have long been USAir, NWA, and UAL. At first the Delta MEC did not share that attitude, but ever since the advent of the RJ, the other three have consistently and increasingly pressured the DMEC to join them. Gradually your MEC was persuaded and did join with its peers in the crusade to stop the RJ. Although that policy has failed completely, and new economic circumstance has forced the USAMEC and UALMEC's to alter their positions (reluctantly), the NWA and DAL MEC's maintain their belligerence and flawed agendas.
Most regional MEC's have cowered in fear of the powers that be within the Union, thus permitting its unreasonable positions to be maintained and made progressively worse. The Comair group has chosen to resist the hegemony and is therefore a prime target.
The truth is that the rank and file line pilots could easily learn to work together were in not for the national agenda and their MEC's proactive support of it. Until that National and major MEC leadership passes into oblivion and a new breed of thinkers, willing to admit that we need each other more than we don't comes into power, the divisiveness will continue to fester and grow.
In the beginning, the DMEC led the way in sensible thinking and the Company and pilot group both benefited greatly from that. The DMEC could lead the way again in setting a precedent that resolves the problems (and no, I'm not talking about a merger). It will take more than rhetoric and hate mail to get there. A new president of ALPA with the courage and vision of a statesman could also do the trick. When that might happen is not something that I would try to predict.
