Hello Lakers!

[Daysoff]

I think you need to get the pilot group organized and in the communication loop first. Then worry about getting the Teamsters involved. Talk to the past Chairmen, I am sure that they have a wealth of information and are willing to help their fellow GLAers. Good luck and stay strong as a group because that is what you will need in order to get Doug to do anything. As long as the pilots are unorganized and don't communicate with each other he will do what ever he wants (whether the contract allows it or not). That is one of the reasons it was such a struggle to hub base is he was affraid that the pilots would get united.

What else is going on at Lakes these days?

Gonzo, how is everything going?

 

[JGonzo]

Crappy,
Got the big furlough at America West, my class(10/1) at American had cancelled, my parrot died and my wife ran off with the Swedish Alpine team(she says she'll be back)!!

 

[1900laker]

>>>>Sid Viscious and I were talking about it in IMT one day. Did he get furloughed from Champion? Lakes was by far the most fun place to work...dang I miss you guys! <<<<<


I think Sid was furloughed, but if I am not mistaken, he starts back at Champion (training) on Jan 7th. I got the lucky call back as well for the 14th.

Quite a reunion going on here. I might as well weigh in. Excellent posts so far. Having seen ALPA at Champion, I gotta say so far it seems like they have been providing pretty good support for this small airline. Granted, I haven't been around the whole time that ALPA has been there, and we are going on 3 yrs without a first contract. But the communication we have is outstanding, led by some very dedicated individuals (Marsh is an ex-laker also). When I showed up at Lakes, the union never even came in to welcome our new class or who to contact if we had a problem. You were kind of left to pull teeth on your own. And I know having been a pilot there that we all shared in that responsibility, so I will admit some fault there. But it seems to me that if the national union doesn't provide very good assistance, it has got to be extremely difficult to get organized as many of the members have never had ANY union experience. I think that is where ALPA has helped our Champion MEC a great deal: just getting the right organization. When I showed up at Champion, litteraly from day one, we were introduced to the union and given all the contact numbers. We have a weekly VARS message updating our status as well as frequent news letters written by our MEC.

I would suggest not going with an internal union at lakes. You are all very poor (been there, done that) and couldn't afford a big lawsuit backed only by your members. If Voss really decides to start messing with you guys because he thinks he can get away with it, you need to have a union for none other than the legal representation. I would re-investigate ALPA and see what your options are. Afterall, that was several years ago that Teamsters/ALPA had the showdown, and much has changed.

Jeff,

Good luck getting back to work soon. I know that you know this already, but you had a lot of lakers who respected the heck out of you.

SEEEE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[JGonzo]

You all have good,valid points about having a strong national group. One that is in the sole business of representing pilots. I just think that the solidarity and strength starts with the group at GLA. APLA or the 747 won't want to put the effort together if you can't show some kind of cohesiveness. We'll just wait and see, cause the flow of pilots through Lakes has come to a screeching halt. Now the group will organize.....it's gonna happen.

Thanks for the good words. It's tough being caught in the sandtrap of life.

G