Full FedEx TA now available at ALPA website.

[sandman2122]

you go right ahead and do that George....................no surprise to any of us.

 

[FoxHunter]

you go right ahead and do that George....................no surprise to any of us.

It's up to you to give me that option.

 

[Phaedrus]

And also you, member-in-good-standing.

 

[FoxHunter]

And also you, member-in-good-standing.

Yes, vote the thing down. Tell those involved it is just not good enough. Tell the experts provided by ALPA that we know better! Send the message to management that we are more divided than ever. If this does not pass by a vote 90%+ I'll be glad to be long retired by the next go-around.

 

[Babylon]

I'm not so sure of the "experts" at ALPA. While the rest of the industry has been taking pay cuts, old Duane has been sitting on a very nice salary. What accomplishments vis a vis contracts has ALPA gotten in the last 5 years? Do you think this contract is that good? Heck, the IPA at UPS did a better job and mananged to squeeze quite a bit more out of their company. I have very little confidence in ALPA. Vote you conscience after hearing the pitch at the road show and getting your questions answered - by the way I couldn't get any of my pre-TA questions answered from my LEC or ALPA concerning our table positions and the company's.

I was mistaken earlier - their is an LOA at the end of the contract that permits all non-members as of Aug 26, 2006 to remain a non-member. Makes the old Agency Shop not sound so great after all. Man, the negotiating committee really got a lot on that one - wonder what they had to give up for that sorry section??

 

[Falconjet]

Sorry for the misinformed. I'm a ALPA member in good standing. Looks like all the bag stickers, slogans, "MY Union Speaks For Me" were nothing more than talk by a number of challanged individuals.

The negotiating committee does speak for me, but that doesn't mean they THINK for me. We can't all be in there negotiating with the company, that is why we have a negotiating committee to do that for us. Now it is up to every union member to do their part and read the TA, THINK about whether it meets THEIR needs, and vote accordingly.

It is NOT a rubber stamp process. The negotiating committee, LEC and MEC are loaded with senior Captains. Wonder where their priorities lie? You can bet they aren't the same as the junior/younger folk's are.

That is why there is a vote, to make sure that every member has a chance to decide it the negotiating committe has indeed represented them.

As to the TA itself, I must admit that I am pretty disappointed in the treatment of S/Os in several areas, the bonus and override for flex guys in particular. I realize that being a S/O is the pits (I am one) and we are supposed to aspire to loftier positions, but $7800 for 2.5 years? Kind of an insult. DECREASING the override for flex SOs? Again, hard to imagine how they are going to fill those slots if they decrease the S/O override while doubling the override for Captains.

I guess the committee figured that just about everybody on the property during the process could have held a widebody right seat if they had wanted to so they threw the S/Os under the bus. A lesson to be learned there.

I also don't understand why in the HE-double-hockey-sticks we spent one iota of negotiating capital on agency shop if they were just going to go ahead and grandfather the freeloaders. That doesn't make any sense to me, new hire union membership has been about 99.9% with ALPA, what have we gained there?

Oh well, just some thoughts from the peanut gallery. I still appreciate the efforts of the negotiating committee and plan to take advantage of the road shows and read the document at least a couple of times before I decide if the TA is right for me. I urge every union member to do the same.

FJ

 

[Phaedrus]

Fox, apparently you misunderstood me. I was neither offering my position on the TA nor begrudging our MEC. I was just telling you, as a member in good standing, that it is also up to you to give you that option. That's the beauty: you are the union.

 

[TheBaron]

The negotiating committee does speak for me, but that doesn't mean they THINK for me. We can't all be in there negotiating with the company, that is why we have a negotiating committee to do that for us. Now it is up to every union member to do their part and read the TA, THINK about whether it meets THEIR needs, and vote accordingly.
FJ

I probably shouldn't open myself up for this but here goes...
For many months I have turned down draft and extra flying because that was what was required for the good of the pilot group, even though I could have spent more time at home and still made better money (which would have been good for me.)
Now I'm supposed to decide the merits of the contract on whether or not it fits my needs?
So which is it...
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
or
Every man for himself.

If the negotiating committee said they got us a fair contract and the MEC agrees, where is all the angst coming from. We elect representatives and they negotiate for us in good faith. When we elect politicians to represent us, we grant them the authority to make decisions in our best interest. We don't get to vote on every little issue; they do it for us. Just like the negotiating committee and MEC have done.
Is it a perfect contract? No. No such animal. But if we splinter now, what the he11 is the purpose of electing officers and going through the whole negotiation process?

 

[BALDBEAVER]

You get what you negotiate. Your negotiating capital is directly proportional to your level of membership commitment to the goal. We had weak committment and therefore my view is that we got a surprisingly great deal of improvements relative to our level of commitment. If you are bitching about this T/A, ask yourself what YOU DID to help the process. If you were flying dft/vlt, selling vacation and doing makeup flying this year, you are getting tenfold what you deserve. We don't have the negotiating capital to get any more than we got. If we had shown the resolve we started to show in the last three months, two years ago, it would be a different story.

 

[Lindy]

Fringe Benefit Tax

Just took a quick look at the Tax Code and couldn't find an appropriate reference to the "transportation" being a taxable benefit. It didn't fit under the excluded / included fringe benefits that are taxable income. Anyone have a cite to the IRC that was utilized in this section of the contract? I know that there were changes, specifically for the use of the corporate jet for non-business purposes, but we do not fit under that category.

Just curious.