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Union Busting at Flexjet

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Vinny

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Posts
51
Decert Group Linked To Third Party

Frank Woelke, the Flexjet pilot who filed for the decertification election, failed to disclose the role of a heavily-funded, union-busting organization in his campaign. The names Russ Baker and James F. Edwards appear on the election papers Woelke filed with the National Mediation Board. You can view the attached NMB document. What he didn’t tell you is that Baker and Edwards are officers of an organization that calls itself the “Center for Independent Employees” (CIE). This is a serious breach of trust.

CIE claims to provide “free legal services” and “educational materials” to employees who want to eliminate unions. That means they provide professional union-busting services. As a 501(c)(3) corporation, CIE files a 990 Form with the IRS. The form is available for public inspection. According to the 2016 filing, CIE received $928,878.00 in contributions and grants from outside sources. The sources of the money are not identified in the IRS filing nor has CIE made them public. The names of Baker and Edwards are listed on the form. You can view the attached 990.

Based on information we have uncovered so far, CIE may have received funding from Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. These two organizations are connected to a nation-wide, corporate funded, anti-union network. CIE is also affiliated with the State Policy Network (SPN). SPN is closely connected with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that seeks to dismantle a wide range of laws and regulations that protect workers and consumers. According to Baker’s LinkedIn profile, he also runs RWP Labor LLC, a for-profit union-busting group. Edwards’ profile states that he worked as a partner in a number of firms that represent employers against employees and unions on labor relations matters, including two years (1978-80) at the Ogletree law firm, which now represents OneSky in contract negotiations against you and our Union.

There is no such thing as “free” union-busting services. Someone always pays the bill. Who is paying for the effort to destroy our Union at OneSky? There is only way to find out.

For starters, Woelke must immediately disclose to all OneSky pilots, regardless of whether they support or oppose decertification, the sources of all of money taken in by CIE, including the names of the employers, individuals, corporations, industry groups, funds, trusts and other entities that have provided financial support to CIE.

It is clear that these forces view decertification at OneSky as part of a larger effort to destroy unions in the United States. In short, they are using us to further their own agenda. If CIE and their anti-union allies succeed here, they will no doubt use it as a basis to attack other pilot unions, and that should concern all professional pilots. Make no mistake about it – we can defeat them if we vote for our Union in the election, and then focus all of our attention on working together as professional pilots to obtain the CBA we deserve. We will keep you informed of all developments.

Fraternally,

Local 1108 Executive Board
 
You can’t bust the union if the pilots stick together.

Even the the golden boy pilots side of this company is underpaid and over worked. The pilots need to see that a better life exists. You just have to work together and use the union and all the pilots to fight for your rights.
 
I like how it says at the end of the application the names of the donors will remain anonymous to protect their first amendment rights. How about our rights? With no union, we will be back to begging for crumbs.
 
You can’t bust the union if the pilots stick together.

Even the the golden boy pilots side of this company is underpaid and over worked. The pilots need to see that a better life exists. You just have to work together and use the union and all the pilots to fight for your rights.

To many pilots either have their heads in the sand, blinded by money, or have been main lining the Koolaid to understand the concept of solidarity!
 
So what kind of pilot does Ricci really want? Red Label is supposed to be the best of the best. One of the traits of one of his best pilots is fanatical attention to detail but what is a fanatic?


Jeremy E Sherman Ph.D.
Ambigamy


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Fanaticism Is a Disease Like Alcoholism
Fanatics Anonymous 12 Steps. At core, don’t blame the addict; blame the disease
Posted Nov 04, 2014

Fanatics, ideologues and absolutists are humanity’s greatest scourge. Whether they’re the leaders or the followers, fanatics are people who indulge in a heady, intoxicating and toxic concoction of self-affirming, know-it-all confidence that they have unique access to absolute truths, truths so perfect that they have to impose them on everyone.


The absolute truths that fanatics latch onto might be religious or political, right wing or left wing, Christian or Islamic, libertarian or communist, new age spiritual or old-time religious. It’s not what they believe that makes them fanatics but how they believe it, that they have final word, no need to consider further evidence, no need to ever wonder or doubt themselves again.


Fanaticism is a drug. Let loose on society it's like crack cocaine or alcohol only worse. Fanatics drive through life like alcoholics driving under the influence. They think they’re perfectly fine driving. They kill innocent bystanders, sometimes by the thousands or millions.


We’ve learned though, that treating alcoholics as criminals doesn’t help us or them. Alcoholics Anonymous has been so successful in part because it gives the addict a graceful way out of the corner he or she is painted into. It’s hard to kick a drug if sobriety means admitting that you’re a vile person through and through. Shaming the addict can make him dig in his heals. It’s easier to kick it if you declare that you’ve become host to a virulent disease that can attack any of us. No one is exempt from the risk. It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility to kick it.


What's needed is an AA-style safe-haven for recovering political and religious fanatics, ideologues and absolutists. It’s message is, "Yes, you’re a wreck and have done real damage. But don't beat yourself up over it. Like so many of us, you became host to a powerful parasite that mutates quickly and has taken over minds throughout human history. Don't blame yourself. You are not alone. Join us. Together we can lick this thing."


Here’s a rough draft for the 12 Steps of Fanatics Anonymous


1. We admitted we were powerless over fanaticism—that our lives had become unmanageable.


2. Came to believe that Reason, a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.


3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Reason.


4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.


5. Admitted to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.


6. Were entirely ready to have Reason remove all these defects of character.


7. Humbly invoked reason to remove our shortcomings.


8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.


9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.


10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.


11. Sought through inquiry, debate, conversation, curiosity and doubt to improve our conscious contact with Reason seeking for better understanding of the human tension between what we want to believe and what’s most likely to be true.


12. Having had an awakening to Reason as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to fanatics of all kinds, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


Of course, the peculiar move here is replacing god with Reason, and more peculiar perhaps to repurpose the AA model for fanatics anonymous, what with AA’s surrender to god’s will, the most notorious excuse for fanaticism in fanaticism’s long and sordid history.


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And what is Reason anyway?


Reason is nature’s gift to humankind and to the humanitarian impulse. It’s also called rationality, which comes from the same root as ratio, to compare, discern, evaluate, judging carefully and humbly in our efforts to find the better bets on how to live.


Reason is also related to logos (link is external), a word with diverse implications over the millennia but related to language, and logic, uniquely human gifts for our ongoing effort to understand the true ways of the world.


Ongoing--that’s how science practices reason. Where fanatics say “I reasoned once, came to the absolute truth and don’t have to reason again,” science, a practical practice we can learn to apply well beyond the lab, admits that there’s no last word, just today’s best guesses, to be improved upon through ongoing inquiry.


Sustained reason is just the hard work that an addiction to fanaticism frees us from. No wonder fanaticism is so intoxicating. Being a know-it-all provides such powerful pain relief. Reason is a much harder master than god. Humbling ourselves to it is painful.


No wonder so many of us fall off the wagon.
 
JHC! Get a life! If you hate it so much, quit!!!

And start at the bottom of somebody else’s seniority list, Brit??? No thanks. 2N said the same thing awhile back and in his Management by Distrust book. How about this, fight for what you have, unless your higher seniority number than me.
 
If the Flex/Options pilots lose this battle, ALL professional pilots' careers will be at risk. Make no mistake about it, If we get decertified, they will be after you next. Getting another job would be the easy thing to do, but I am willing to stand and fight this one to the end. What they have been trying to do to us just isn't right.
 
I just don't get it. There is irrefutable proof Frank'n'Beans have been lying all along and this campaign still has legs?

I said it years ago and the unfortunate proof is in the pudding. The only reason Kenn Ricci ever purchased Flexjet was to get rid of the union. His narcissism has been further fueled by the opportunity to become famous for destroying the union.

Any Flexjet or Flight Options pilot that doesn't realize you are simply pawns in some billionaires game is burying their head in the sand. I almost feel sorry for these decert guys. They gave been brainwashed to do the ugly bidding for a cause that will lead to their owm destruction. How incredibly stupid.

Do you actually think people like Kenn Ricci or the Koch brothers give two ****s about a single one of you? This is a chess game on a level you're not even important enough to protect. You are the sacrifice. In chess a sacrifice is all about move giving up a piece to gain tactical advantage. Any chess piece except the king may be sacrificed. Who do you think the K's think is King? If you're stupid enough to think the board is just OneSky or even just aviation then you have not been paying attention.
 

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