Oh yeah here's some excerpts from Klens other letter regarding Don D:
Dear Pilots,
SkyWest typically refrains from commenting on employee disciplinary matters. Now that a newspaper is writing about it, and ALPA is using Don as kindling for its campaign, it is time you know all the facts.
I am not writing this letter as a distant observer of the facts or the people involved. I was friends with Don for over fifteen years. We’ve been roommates and have flown together many, many times. Don and I spent several weeks together on a couple of different occasions in Alaska on vacation. I was also the Director of Aircraft Operations when Don was disciplined for making bad decisions. He called and asked me to intervene on his behalf, which I was more than willing to do. However, when I learned the facts, I reluctantly concluded that SkyWest had no choice but to discipline him. This is the same conclusion that two review boards and OSHA reached after it investigated Don’s claims.
So here are the facts. Each fact you read in the next six paragraphs comes from testimony given under oath – most of it from Don himself. None of these facts are in dispute. Ask yourself, when you read them, whether you think proper safety decisions were made.
In July 2005, profane graffiti was written on a corkboard in the SLC station. The corkboard was removed but the profane message was written again, this time on the wall. Since the problem was not going away, SkyWest hired two handwriting experts to identify the person who was defacing property. Working independently from each other, both experts identified Don as the author of the graffiti and his employment was subsequently terminated. Don requested a review board, of which half the members were line pilots. These pilots reviewed the facts and unanimously upheld the termination.....
This brings us back to the present. After failing to convince two peer review boards and getting a “no cause” finding from OSHA, Don appealed again to another office in the Department of Labor, which held hearings on this matter last November. Last Wednesday, that office entered opposite findings to the OSHA investigation, which has touched off the ALPA propaganda about Don. What ALPA has not told you is that this order and opinion, from one person, is only the second stage in a process that could have as many as five levels of review. They never mention that Don’s claims have been rejected three times by line pilots and a federal government agency. As it sits, we have mixed messages coming out of two different offices in the Department of Labor, which we will ask to be resolved by another government board.
This is why I find it so strange that ALPA, whose mission statement is “to promote and champion all aspects of aviation safety" would politicize a case full of dubious safety decisions. I guess the opportunity to attack SkyWest midway through the process, with half the facts, was just too good to pass up. I don’t believe it will work because convincing our pilots that SkyWest does not care about safety is going to be a pretty hard sell.
My 33 years as a pilot have taught me that one thing is certain: only those within the company know what’s in our best interest. No outside party has gained or can continue to gain what we can by working together. Remember, if you do not want ALPA in your life, then leave the phone on the hook and do not vote.
Sincerely,
Klen B
