Polar/Atlas - Objective Truth

[b747dogg]

When Atlas was in nego a few (3) years ago it was widely believed that Polar's union chose to work in its own self intrest (right or wrong for them) and undercut Atlas's efforts for their first contract. Examples of this are offering to fly Atlas's struck feight in the 11th hour and signing a six month contract extention so Mgmt wouldn't have to nego. with both groups at the same time (3 cheers for unity).

It does not matter what side you ask because this did happen!!! I was there!!! Polar took a six month extension and did say they had to fly the stuck freight in the 11th hour!!! The Polar pilots voted for the extension and their MEC said they would fly the struck freight. If any Polar pilot who was there at that time disagrees with this please speak up. I know the MEC was fired 2 weeks later, but it did happen! I don't even work at Atlas anymore, but I'm still bitter. The pilots at Polar are a good group like anywhere else but they did screw the Atlas pilots and now they are paying for it. It's Karma.

Just remember the enemy is Cato and the Evil Empire!!!

 

[ABOVE ME]

Not to beat a dead horse..however. I heard that Polar guys or the previous polar mec said that polar would fly struck freight because atlas was gonna be dumb enough to sign that crazy no strike clause into thier contract. That "threat" then prompted atlas to include having the right not to cross a picket line put into thier contract. Without that paragraph atlas would not be able to support polar in the event that they polar went on strike which ended up happening. Turns out from what I am reading that it didnt matter because atlas didnt support polar. As a "whole" anyway. Dont take it to the bank just what i hear. Atlas may have cut off thier nose to spite thier face depending on what happens in "the merger" and thier negotiations. Only time will tell.

As far as Atlas guys that crossed the lines I can tell you they will be pursued by alpa or members of, and that the pursuit of those that did cross will be nothing short of relentless. Just what seems to be going on. All of this third hand from a friend of mine.

seems that all of the new guys oughta just be friends and take the jobs for what they are . no sense of fighting when you dont even know what your fighting about. too many unemployed pilots like myself out there to be complaining and straining over almost nothing, or something you dont have control over. Seems like flying 74's all over the world could be fun....if you let it.:beer:

 

[b747dogg]

Not to beat a dead horse..however. I heard that Polar guys or the previous polar mec said that polar would fly struck freight because atlas was gonna be dumb enough to sign that crazy no strike clause into thier contract. That "threat" then prompted atlas to include having the right not to cross a picket line put into thier contract. Without that paragraph atlas would not be able to support polar in the event that they polar went on strike which ended up happening.

This is not true! The first TA that was put up for vote failed by something like 98.7%. Atlas was ready to strike, not sign anything until Polar sold us out 2 hours before we were going to walk. I was there, in the strike center, and I still have my strike sign!!! If you were not there, why post crap!! "I have a friend that has a friend that has a friend that knows a Polar pilot." It's crap, don't post it!!! Cheers.

 

[Craven Morhead]

This is not true! The first TA that was put up for vote failed by something like 98.7%. Atlas was ready to strike, not sign anything until Polar sold us out 2 hours before we were going to walk. I was there, in the strike center, and I still have my strike sign!!! If you were not there, why post crap!! "I have a friend that has a friend that has a friend that knows a Polar pilot." It's crap, don't post it!!! Cheers.

This is what's wrong with most of the posts regarding the Atlas/Polar situation. Either they're like b747dogg explains or they have been here maybe a couple if years and they are experts. Not to mention these newbies are the most outspoken about going after scabs.

I too was there and picketed side by side with b747dogg and what happened as expained did actually happen. I took it in the shorts for 135K as a result of Cato's plane swapping and furlough/downgrade program, but that was the past,,enough, finished, done, period.

What needs to happen now is just chill out and see if the t/a passes and hope we can proceed with the merger. As far as the line crossers, they'll get their day in court. There was not one incident of an Atlas pilot flying a Polar plane or knowingly flying their freight. What you'll find is that these dudes went around the lines to fly Atlas aircraft filled with Atlas freight and in a few situations, actually empty planes. Im not condoning their actions, they just didnt have the balls to refuse. This is not a scab. What about the UPS dudes that walked by the picketers at the Anc Marriot to fly their own aircraft, are they scabs? Well the Atlas guys that did the same are being labeled as such. This is wrong!!

The biggest problem was that your average line pilot didnt understand the stategy behind some of the picketing tactics and I blame the Altas mec for not explaining the situation better. Btw, Alpa was useless as well. The bottom line was that the Polar crews had zero clout and their only strength came from stopping the Atlas pilots, whatever it took. It sucked and many took these tactics as personal threats but thats all the polar group had.

This is a very unique situation and its not over until the two groups merge. Cato will do everything to prevent this since this takes away one of his chicken sh$t tactics of playing pilot groups against each other. He's the true enemy here and we are only making his job easier by attacking each other. Now, time for a brewskie...

 

[ABOVE ME]

OK I'll leave it to you guys that know. The only thing I'm curious about is how does a 300 person pilot group threaten to fly a 600 person pilots group struck freight ?? Its impossible if some people are saying that was gonna happen. It seems it would have had little effect if you guys walked. With the tables turned as it recently was, it seems to have been a much more possible even though still a difficult proposition. Those in the know realize that there was some of that going on recently. Just curious.

 

[Craven Morhead]

OK I'll leave it to you guys that know. The only thing I'm curious about is how does a 300 person pilot group threaten to fly a 600 person pilots group struck freight ?? Its impossible if some people are saying that was gonna happen. It seems it would have had little effect if you guys walked. With the tables turned as it recently was, it seems to have been a much more possible even though still a difficult proposition. Those in the know realize that there was some of that going on recently. Just curious.

Ok, this going beyond clueless.

Please read the above posts and follow advice.