There's a lawsuit? I wasn't aware of it. Quite honestly, I'll probably opt out. The only ones that gain in that deal are the lawyers. Although I suppose ALPA will be able to figure an angle to make some money off of it.
He-he. I think you're misunderstanding. A group of furloughees are suing ALPA because they feel they did not get a bond distribution/not enough of a bond distribution. ALPA won't make any money off of it. They stand to lose money!
As for talking to anyone at the MEC about who could be represented in the bond distribution, no I didn't talk to anyone.
Here's the problem that evolved concerning the bond distribution and the furloughees, simply put. When a pilot left UAL, whether they were retired or furloughed, they are no longer UA ALPA people. Yup, that's cold, but that's the way it is. I'm just a joe-blow ALPA member with no special information, but believe it or not, when 2,172 of our co-workers were put to the streets, the rest of us didn't' rub our hands together and think to ourselves, "Oh boy, more bond money for us!!" Neither did the MEC. Because the furloughees were no longer ALPA members and therefore no longer represented by ALPA (again, cold but reality), the MEC had to draw a line somewhere as to who was eligible for a bond distribution and who wasn't. So you had to be on the property by a certain time.
Why did they have to "draw a line in the sand?" Fear of litigation!! The MEC felt that they could be sued if they gave/set aside bond money for members (i.e. furloughees) who weren't ALPA members any more and/or perhaps were never coming back!! So again, the line was drawn with consultation with our hired/ALPA legal/finance people and some people got nothing.
Now in hindsight, we got
sued anyway by a bunch of senior guys who think that not only did any furloughee not deserve any bond money, but anyone with under 10 to 12 years on the property didn't either!! Of course had our MEC guys knew the senior guys were going to sue anyway, they probably would have had ALL the furloughees take part of the distribution. That's speculation on my part, but I wish now all 2172 of you guys had received something because we got sued anyway and therefore had nothing to lose!!
As far as your argument about UA ALPA and the retirees........same thing. They're not ALPA members when they retire, so there were legal concerns again that ALPA could get sued if we spent resources defending them or including them in the bond distribution.
Obviously the above is far more complicated than the nutshell above, but if you are going to come back to the property and you have serious concerns about how things shook out during bankruptcy, talk to the guys who were in the arena at the time. There were many tough decisions made with incomplete information and the threat of litigation hanging overhead.
UALdriver, as for the extortion issue, please cite where I used the word, or even implied, extortion.
I was referring to someone else. THAT was the person who I told that if they didn't like ALPA and felt that their dues were extorted from them, that they should quit and find a nice, non-union carrier to be employed by.
That ALPA push poll for age 65 ticked off a LOT of people.
That ALPA push poll you refer to ticked off a lot of people who don't have a clue as to how and why the Age 65 change came about. But, if a bunch of clueless pilots want to decertify ALPA, that's their legal right. I hope those same pilots who like to throw stones from the cheap seats are ready to get hit by some when they take over!