Interesting take on ALPA

[kommutrdog]

http://www.airlinesafety.com/Unions/ALPAIrrelevant.htm

 

[D'Angelo]

http://www.airlinesafety.com/Unions/ALPAIrrelevant.htm

What a great article. Trust me guys theres a lot more like us out there! Let the revolution begin!

 

[Soverytired]

An impossible task

I think he does a reasonable job trying to post a "middle of the road" approach.

This will get him exactly nowhere, and win him no friends (re: Prez Bush and his latest "middle of road" non-amnesty amnesty program).


I wonder which "major regional airline" he works for, anyway?

 

[gator_hater]

I had quite an extensive conversation with Brian about unions (ALPA) last summer. If you read that he is anti-union, you are wrong. He is smart, well educated, and right on. Brian and I agreed that the union has some benefits, but fails to see the long term responsibilities that it has to it's current, past, and future members. That my friends will do nothing but to screw us all in the long run.

If you want to use a political analogy:
ALPA is no better than our current political system. Those at the top are more interested in protecting their power than they are representing those who put them there. It does not matter what side of either argument you are on the system is broke, problem is we can't find the middle ground to get it fixed.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

WOW... in less than five minutes one can see this is clreary an anti union
website. With gushing claims of the great non union Jetblue.

http://www.airlinesafety.com/Unions/ALPAIrrelevant.htm

It seems the incredibly successful SWA and thier heavily unioinzed labor force
is quite the annomoly. I guess SWA's management stinks and thier union is
really really great.

Number one Rule Brian.....

Air Line Pilots Do Not Run Airlines.


Yet you write your article as if they should. Well they can't and won't and shouldn't and couldn't.

it has become clear to me that ALPA,
and indeed all AFL-CIO unions, are far more
interested in acquiring and projecting
political power than they are in representing
the long-term best interests of their members

Brian, ALPA and the AFL-CIO are political organizations They are very much interested in political power. Did you know that the ATA, airline managements own political force, was created five years after ALPA,
in 1936, in part to counter ALPA's political effectiveness?

Now if you meant personal political power, that
is a different story. You may have a point, but I don't think it is as severe as the uninformed would like to think....
And if the common member wants to address too much personal politcal
power, then the member must get involved politically to take back his power. In addition that is a corrupt leadership issue, not a organizational issue.
More on this later....

Unfortunately, post-deregulation, it is no longer the case that unions can indirectly drive customer purchasing decisions, nor that operational costs no longer matter----since the customers now have free market choice.

Please explain the SWA effect.

ALPA fits that post-deregulation description perfectly; it continues to live in a 1976 alternate reality, trying the same obsolete approaches that have no place in the 2006 reality. It is as much ALPA who has its head in the sand, as it is management.

Brian, they key to a successful airline is todays market is productivity.
The only way to increase productivity is to tear down departmental walls,
create a culture of teamwork and eglitariansm. The legacy carriers are too
entrenched in heirachy, big ego CEOs and the blame game. No where in your
article to you address Corp Elite compensation for poor productivity. (example, their golden parachutes)

If ALPA is too blame, them blame them for not being more effective in driving
managmeent toward this ideal. But as I said before Air Line Pilots don't run
Airlines. If they do mention ideas they can get shot down has being union bias.

Why? Becuase unlike SWA, where unions are partners, at the legacy carriers (and thier feeders) unions are adversaries.

ALPA National provides us with "financial experts" who inform our local leadership as to whether our companies can afford our contract demands and they were very good at it - as long as they don't have to look ahead more than one or two years.

Brian, how can you expect ALPA to forcast beyond two years when Airline
management can't. Heck, the airline analysist can't. Please be realistic.

First, power has to return to the rank and file. That requires a rejection of mandatory union membership, the elimination of mandatory dues payments, and the option for the rank and file to quit their unions. Such policy changes will make union leadership more responsive to front line members.

Brian, I'm glad you offer solutions, otherwise your article would be nothing
but a complaint.

Did you know that the most powerful group at ALPA is the general membership? The problem is no one attends the mandatory quarterly meeetings. I don't know what you expect the ALPA leadership to do if no one will come to meetings? How can the Rank and File control thier rightful power if they don't attend the meetings? Is it ALPA's responsibility to physically place members at the meetings? Most members are right.. ALPA isn't a democracy...because only the leadership is at the meetings.

As you know, members can quit the union but they will pay a contract fee. If ALPA didn't have money, then the complaints and effectiveness would be even worse. Money talks, BS walks. You can't have it both ways, either you have dues paying members or you have no union. You don't call for a total ALPA shutdown, so I take it you still want a union.

Second, Congress should pass legislation, which requires unions
to reveal their financials, at both the national and the local level, of the bargaining unit. How can you exercise control over your representatives, when you have no idea what they are doing with your money? Today, union spending is a big secret to the rank and file members; there are no provisions in the ALPA constitution to hold union leadership accountable for how they spend member dues.

Actually, you don't need Congress to pass this type of transparent financials.

First at the local level just ask your LEC/MEC SEC/Treas to look at the books.
If he/she says no, then you have a problem with your leadership and not ALPA.

Also, the Bush Admin has created a huge union reporting rquirement called LM-2. It has made union financial reporting a momumental burden costing thouands in union dues money. But no dues paying member seems to mind. What this has done is attracted attention to union salaries..and boy have unions members been pointing out these red herrings.

Third, the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and the policies of the
National Mediation Board (NMB) desperately need overhauling.

Now we are talking!! How do we overhaul federal code? It could take an act of Congress!! How do we, as Air Line Pilots, get Congress to do what we want? We use our political power! We've two sources of political power. ALPA National and our Politcal Action Committee or ALPA-PAC.

An effective way is thru Congressional hearings and one-on-one visits. Now we need a guy who is politically savvy enuogh to address a Congressional Hearing or office visit. Who could that be....??

Just one guy,... a point man... Who could do this for us.......???? Maybe we need an ALPA President? Oh wait we got one! (note: I am only pointing out the title of ALPA President)

As far as ALPA-PAC goes, we are never going to overhaul the RLA and NMB if we don't get more members involved. (Do you, the reader, contribute to ALPA-PAC?)

Brian, something you sort of understand. We live in a very free market and capitalistic society. Better, faster, stronger and cheaper comes at a price. The free market system is not an ALPA problem. You are really addressing a monolith of huge proportions and yet you don't realize it.

It should be required that all activities related to negotiations,
be totally transparent. Today, unions, in the guise of "representing"
the rank and file, poll their members periodically during negotiations
and then keep the results of that polling secret from those whom they
deign to represent - it is quite simply an abuse of their leadership
provisions to do so, and is a common example of union corruption in action.

Brian, sounds like you've got a leadership issue. ALPA isn't broke, you just
need better leaders. But you also need to understand the negotiating process.

If ALPA published the results of the poll, then management will know what
to expect. Not too smart.....

The NE Patriots don't send their opponets thier playbooks.

If you don't trust your leaders than get one whom you can. Or trust yourself...

The RLA must be modified to require mandatory arbitration,
if there is no contract agreement after two years of negotiating. The contract issues would then be resolved within one year, by an
independent arbitration panel, made up of industry experts drawn from
labor, management, and financial institutions. Such mandatory
arbitration would eliminate the need for unions to go on strike,
so the revised law should outlaw strikes too. The airline industry is such an important part of the national infrastructure, that union activists should not be allowed to shut it down, or even to slow it down, as did the American Airline pilots in 1999.

Brian, not sure if you remember CESTA. But they would've loved you
over there. CESTA was a political power lobby group set up by airline
managmeent to install "baseball" style arbitration. Last best offer stuff.
That is great when you are ball player and the difference is between Derek Jeter buying a house in the Hamptons, NJ and Florida or just one house.

But when you are talking about a Mesaba pilot trying to feed his children I take offensive exception to your comments.

Continued.....

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Continued....

ALPA must begin to truly represent and educate the rank and file member. To this end, leadership needs to embrace a role of information facilitators - allowing rank and file members access to all views and all data on a given issue. Union leadership must then partner with management to provide forums, much like presidential political debates, where rank and file members can confront management and union leadership directly, so that the rank and file can understand and appreciate all considerations in a given issue. Only then will the rank and file be able to develop an informed, unbiased assessment of the issues at hand, and subsequently regain control over their futures.

Brian,
I agree with the first line in the above quote.

Yet hardly any one self educates. ALPA has built the watering hole but they can't get the horses to drink. ALPA cannot make people read. ALPA cannot make pilots attend LEC meetings. ALPA cannot make pilots vote in LEC elections.


Partner with management to provide forums, like debates! With managment? You are losing creditbility.

At an LEC meeting you can have polite and professional debates about whatever you want. Why? Because ALPA is a democracy. You can speak your mind. However, management is not a democracy. I hope all Air Line Pilots realize that. Your airline management is not a democracy. Therefore, they will not engage debate, for fear of losing that debate and their control. Very simple and true. The ALPA model is not broke, its that the users manual is not read. ALPA can adapt however it needs to adapt.

The problem is the membership, like yourself, that refuses to remove the lens in which they understand. You insist on addressing problems that aren't really problems. They are inefficiences and a lack of understanding within yourself.
It is incredibly rare to find an ALPA member who accepts reponsibility. They all play the blame game.

There are alot of steps that must be taken before we can get ALPA effecient.
The first things are control what you can control. That means you, the member. Control your education and you particiapation. Afterwards, you can begin to influence change.

ALPA must understand, that the days when labor cost
increases can simply be passed on to the customers, are gone forever.
Today, the only way to generate the profitability required to sustain high compensation contracts over the long term, is for the union to partner with management to increase market share, via increasing efficiencies, reducing operating costs, and providing better customer service.

SWA.

Pilots can no longer act merely as bus drivers - they must get out of the cockpit and into the cabins and act like businessmen and women. To the passenger, the face of the company is the gate agent, the flight attendant and the cockpit crew. Those employees had better put their best
customer service face forward, if they want their company to retain customers and gain market share. Pilots need to be as focused on customer relations as they are on safety. Only then will profitability increase to the point where lucrative compensation can be sustained over the long term.

I see your retail experience talking here.

If pilots are to get out of the cockpit, they must do it on their own accord and not as a part of some management initiative. If pilots are focused on customer relations then they are not focused on safety, if mandated by managment. They only way this works is via a pilots own accord.

If front line personnel don't respond to this challenge, you can bet some other airline with a more enlightened perspective, will. And customer service expectations are so low right now, that the airline who does so, will attract a huge chunk of the customers in that marketplace.

Like SWA? Their labor relations are great. Is that because SWAPA is so great? No it is because SWA management is great. Air Line Pilots don't run airlines. I know we are so well trained in solving the problem, but we can't solve managments problems. Front line personnel can't respond to this challenge if thier corporate leadership are not leading this initiative. Personnel will only be banging their head on the wall.

In short, current ALPA policies are rooted in a pre-1978 world
and as such are outdated and ineffective. Their policymaking has been
corrupted with the political power that comes from vast sums of money,
combined with little or no accountability. Such policies are totally inappropriate for a free, capitalistic market system. It’s time for reform,
it’s time for a major paradigm shift. Only then will ALPA begin to
protect the long-term best interests of their membership.

Brian,
You motivation is clearly good, however the issue is so much more complex for you to place this much burdon on one organization. What about the Bush Admin? What about the DOT? The FAA? What about managment? What about our massive free market system that has no control room? No where do you provide any discussion on these groups, yet if you want to fix all of the ALPA-problems you have listed, then these players must be at the table.

Your vision is thru your perception of how you understand things to be. Does that mean your vision is true?

I agree ALPA's effectiveness right now is low. I want it to improve. But the only way the rank and file is going to become better is for them to get involved. They have to learn more about the organization they want to change. You can't fly a jet on your first flying lesson. The membership needs to learn how to be members of a politcal organization. Only then can they effect change.

Your article just doesn't work, because it doesn't address the real issues. And when you do come close, like changing the RLA and NMB, you don't realize that the programs are there, its just the users are not intergrated.

The membership just needs to get engaged......

 

[Sig]

Nevermind... the joke be lost.

Rez, you nailed it on another post as well- there is too much boiling in my walnut-sized brain pan to put it down here. I will offer input later, but please keep going.

 

[woog315]

Like Churchill said- "[FONT=Arial, Geneva]Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

I pretty much look at ALPA the same way. It sucks, but its better than the alternative.
[/FONT]

 

[gator_hater]

Rez,
I think that if you sat down and talked with Brian you would find that the three of us agree on many subjects and ideas. You brought out many of the points that he and I discussed. Problem is, with ALPA and gov't, that the people who could express their power are lagely appathetic to what is goin on around them. If those with oversight ability (members and voters) do not excercise it, eventually the inmates begin to run the asylum.

Weather it is mgmt or the union that are screwed up is not the point. It is both. At this point neither wants to blink frst, in reality they both need to blink at the same time.

Has ALPA, or mgmt, gotten so far off track that they can't be reigned in? I hope not. Time will tell. All we can do is hope that the generally overly emotional rank and file will educate themselves and help solve the problem.

 

[D'Angelo]

Rez,
I think that if you sat down and talked with Brian you would find that the three of us agree on many subjects and ideas. You brought out many of the points that he and I discussed. Problem is, with ALPA and gov't, that the people who could express their power are lagely appathetic to what is goin on around them. If those with oversight ability (members and voters) do not excercise it, eventually the inmates begin to run the asylum.

Weather it is mgmt or the union that are screwed up is not the point. It is both. At this point neither wants to blink frst, in reality they both need to blink at the same time.

Has ALPA, or mgmt, gotten so far off track that they can't be reigned in? I hope not. Time will tell. All we can do is hope that the generally overly emotional rank and file will educate themselves and help solve the problem.

People are beginning to educate themselves already. They realize that unions are a cowardly bunch who scare members into keeping them on property with campaigns of lies, fear and anger. LIES that all management is evil and hates all pilots no matter what. LIES that without a union you are incapable of doing anything for yourself. FEAR that you will lose your job for any little infraction and only the union can save it. ANGER irrational misguided anger. Making everyone think everyone is out to screw pilots and they deserve outrageous salaries.

 

[doh]

Gator just said Brian doen't agree with you D'Oosch, so how about a little stfu? Hmm?

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Rez,
I think that if you sat down and talked with Brian you would find that the three of us agree on many subjects and ideas. You brought out many of the points that he and I discussed. Problem is, with ALPA and gov't, that the people who could express their power are lagely appathetic to what is goin on around them. If those with oversight ability (members and voters) do not excercise it, eventually the inmates begin to run the asylum.

Weather it is mgmt or the union that are screwed up is not the point. It is both. At this point neither wants to blink frst, in reality they both need to blink at the same time.

Has ALPA, or mgmt, gotten so far off track that they can't be reigned in? I hope not. Time will tell. All we can do is hope that the generally overly emotional rank and file will educate themselves and help solve the problem.

I agree with your post....

In addition, when the membership does get involved it can be trying, and if they are politically out manuevered, they can easily lose trust in the system and claim that system corrupt. Hence the RJDC. Not to slam the RJDC but rather to show an example of how a group with an agenda was not politcally successful and had to go rogue....

 

[Bizjet]

Continued....




Brian,

Partner with management to provide forums, like debates! With managment? You are losing creditbility.


I see your retail experience talking here.

If pilots are to get out of the cockpit, they must do it on their own accord and not as a part of some management initiative. If pilots are focused on customer relations then they are not focused on safety, if mandated by managment. They only way this works is via a pilots own accord.
.....

Rez,

Brian is only interested in writing articles that slam ALPA in hopes that ASA management will find favor with his anti-union position. He has very little time flying the line at ASA. Most new hires get off probation with more real line experience that Brian has in over 10 years of a career of self promotion and desire to keep his non flying desk job. He has spent about 14 months writing new LOFT scenarios and most are destined for file 13. He has also said that he can take a pay cut if the company needs it. He came to ASA and was trained as a Captain off the street. I was taking a pro check earlier this year and one of the IP's said he was a waste of company money and was another of many who needs to go back to the line and get real flying experience so he can have some empathy for the COMMON pilots who work here. He also said very few take him seriously and most just laugh at his pontifications.

In short--Brian is full of Brian. He will continue to write his ANTI ALPA articles in hopes that someone in management will put him on the ASA Leadership Team. He will certainly fit in perfectly on that side of the table.