Luckydog, almost a year ago, I asked the Flex pilots to keep a simple list of all the changes that were occurring. Some of the changes would sound logical & some would seem odd. Some you wouldn't care anything about and some would have a definite impact on your job, your livelihood, and your career. Have you looked at that list recently? At what point will you admit to yourself that all these changes aren't in our best interest?
It sounds like you're looking for something in plain old black and white. Politics and business practices and labor relations and yes, some relationships don't work that way. You've got to look at everything else, accepting that only rarely are events spelled out with openness and honesty.
It ain't fear-mongering to tell you to watch out for the thunderstorm in front of you. You can stare at it all you want, but the time to deviate isn't when you're smack dab plowing through it watching your wings flap up and down. It's before-hand, looking out ahead, realizing there's a problem in front of you that you need to pay attention to.
It's interesting that you should mention the list of accomplishments in the last year, I was thinking about that very subject last week.
On the plus side:
We were paid a very nice bonus as promised.
In just the last couple of months there has been some movement in the fleets, a few upgrades and transitions.
A Global program was opened.
On the down side:
No pay scale increase (not expected, but always hoped for).
Still no fleet growth.
The Global program was mostly staffed by ex-mgmt pilots, mostly from FLOPS.
The door has been opened for the hiring of pilots without an interview.
Not much has been said about the 2014 bonus program.
Sounds like the new uniforms are already decided (me no like the rumored winning outfit).
On the "we'll see how it goes" side:
Additional bases were opened at the cost of a new scheduling model for those that participate in the plan.
So I guess I continue doing what I've been doing and give it another year.
My question to you is what do you think the FJ pilots are going to do, march in on KR and tell him Hell no, we're not going to continue to take his money under these status quo working conditions!
FLOPs has the IBT, the pilots are the union, blah, blah. You guys want to be in charge? Then do something. Be a force that makes every reasonable FJ pilot want to be a member. From what I've seen the IBT has done less than KR.