Leadership? I see no vision or direction.
I have reviewed Captain Brannan's website and offer the following....
Under the page
issues>collective collobration Capt. Brannan writes
When our profession and industry was directly challenged by cabotage, through his leadership [Capt. Duffy]and with the support of the BOD a "Suspension of Service" (SOS.) was publicly announced and efforts and energy were put into making that SOS a reality - IF - it was needed. The strategy worked because when you are truly ready to take drastic action, that fact alone precludes having to take the action.
This is simply not true. The strategy did not work and cannot work.
I am not sure what the last sentence means!
The strategy worked because when you are truly ready to take drastic action, that fact alone precludes having to take the action.
Huh? So you are saying that Eisenhower didn't have to invade Normandy because he was simply ready to do so?
While many pilots in this current environment are ready to be militant, a SOS is not an option despite the above misleading information.
From Flying the Line Vol II. Professor Hopkins on pages 24-33 tells of how even though ALPA approved an SOS it was never implemented and was called an ALPA nuclear weapon. (meaning it would destroy all, including ALPA).
On page 33 Hopkins writes of the anti labor judges placed by Regan and Bush would certianly ential jail time for both members and ALPA leaders. To do a SOS would mean the end of any pilots career.
Most of the SOS planning took place during JJ O'Donnells tenure as the ALPA President. But Brannan talks about ALPA President Duffy using an SOS during the Eastern pilots battle with Lorenzo (not necessarily cabatoge) and Duffy concluded that "that the basic SOS concept is unworkable" (page 33).
Also on page 246 Duffy states that an SOS is really only valid when it effects national issues such as cabatoge or hijacking. But the SOS in this situation was in support of Easterns MEC and thier Lorenzo battle. In fact Hopkins states "Hank Duffy's refusal to endorse an SOS generated enormous anger among them" [the EAL pilots]
Duffy states on page 246 "So nobody who does not bargain nationally so that all of the local units are involved, commits a national action like an SOS"
and on page 37 the 1972 SOS is called "one of the most embarrassing disasters in ALPA history"
when you are truly ready to take drastic action, that fact alone precludes having to take the action.
So as ALPA President is Capt. Brannan willing to shut down the airline industry? If he does, then we are all finished. But the lawyers, policy makers, ALPA members, legislators, Supreme Court and Bush Admin know he can't, so what do we really have here? Is Capt. Brannan saying if he really believes he can conduct an SOS he won't have to? I am not following the logic.
Unfortunatly I only see this section of Brannan's website as emotional rousing of the masses to get votes.
Under
issues>leadership...
Captain Brannan discusses leadership. I read it and didn't feel connected. there is no substance. What I look for in a leader is someone who empowers his troops or staff. In fact if we are to "think out side the box" then we need a new leadership style..... servant leadership.....
Under
Dan's Plan link on right hand margin of home page.
Capt. Brannan has a lengthly outline that means nothing. I've read the entire outline and it reads like a Corporate Business thesaurus of quick-fix feel good jargon.
For example:
Communicate a clear message:
- State of the union:
- Financially
- Internally
- Staff
- Infrastructure
- Resources
- Other?
- Special focus on ALPA strengths.
What does this mean to me the ALPA member? If this is your internal organzational methodology, then keep it internally.
This website, as another poster stated on another thread, is hollow.
What I want to know from any ALPA President Candidates is...
What is you opinion on Brand Scope?
What is your opinion on the current status of ALPA-PAC effectiveness?
What is your opinion of the Unit II negotiations.
What is your opinion of general membership participation rates in LEC meetings and elections?
What is your concern on cabatoge?
What are your concerns on foreign ownership?
Should the APA rejoin ALPA? or should ALPA join the APA?
What are your concerns on FPL abuse?
How do you plan to better unify the general membership?
Finally, if you want to question the validiaty of Flying the Line consider this...
on page XII of the Preface [Vol. II].
Hopkins, the books' author writes
JJ O'Donnell [then ALPA's president] asked me to write another history commemorating the unions 50th anniversary. With the understanding that I would give ALPA its history "warts and all," I agreed.
The result was Flying the Line; the First Half Century of the Airline Pilots Association, published in 1982. My interpretation of ALPA's history was not censored. I work for WesternIllionisUniversity specifically and for an abstraction called history" generally. Although frankly nervous about the book, O'Donnell understood that prettified "court history" praising the King (so to speak) would be worthless. If pilots were to derive insight from my book, it had to be free to go wherever truth took it.
