Gee...I guess I was wrong about C41 reps recruiting for USAPA. No matter, now they can concentrate on USAPA unencumbered by ALPA.
Oh...and Jack DID put out a message...check your email:
=TripNic=
-----Original Message-----
From: aaamec-rt@ames.alpa.org [mailto:aaamec-rt@ames.alpa.org]
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 8:39 PM
To: aaamec-rt
Subject: AAA MEC Chairman's Message -- March 3, 2008
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Attached is the MEC Chairman's message for March 3, 2008.
This is MEC Chairman Jack Stephan with a Chairman's message to the pilots for Monday, March 3rd.
Today, the Executive Council met in Washington, DC, to consider ALPA President Captain John Prater’s recommendation that PHL Council 41 be placed into emergency trusteeship under the charges that the Council 41 LEC representatives are actively supporting USAPA.
The Executive Council approved the emergency trusteeship, which takes effect immediately. The Council 41 LEC reps no longer hold office as Local Council 41 officers or status representatives, members of the ALPA US Airways MEC, or members of the ALPA Board of Directors. They will be afforded the appropriate notice of a hearing to be held before the Executive Board as required under ALPA’s Constitution and By-Laws.
The Council 41 reps were invited to attend the Executive Council meeting today and to make a presentation. They declined to do so and also declined to participate by conference call. Failing to state their support for ALPA in the representation election, their opposition to USAPA, and their commitment to urge Local Council 41 pilots to vote for ALPA, as requested by Captain Prater, the Executive Council unanimously passed two resolutions upholding Captain Prater’s recommendation for trusteeship.
As I said in my previous chairman’s message, if the Council 41 reps failed to respond to the Executive Council and a decision was made by the Council to uphold the trusteeship, ALPA's Constitution and By-laws call for a process to ensure that the Council 41 pilots are represented by an individual or individuals who will quickly take over their representative duties. To that end, Captain Clyde Romero and Captain Jack Lawrence have been appointed as trustees for Council 41. These pilots will perform Council 41’s representative duties for the time being.
It is truly a sad day for our pilot group when one of our councils has to be placed into trusteeship due to a representational dispute. But the unfortunate reality is that this kind of predicament comes with the territory of being an elected union representative. It is my understanding that other unions would have been far less tolerant in allowing individual reps to sit on the fence with respect to publicly stating their allegiance during a representational dispute. Pilots have the right to make a decision about their future and who will represent them, but there should never be a doubt about who your ALPA volunteers support and where they stand. You already know where the MEC officers stand. And, as I’ve said, we'll be asking every ALPA volunteer soon if they are going to support ALPA or USAPA in the representation election. It’s our collective right to know.
I have no doubt that there are many PHL based pilots who will say that their reps were representing their interests just fine, and I have no doubt that many of these PHL pilots might be USAPA supporters as well. If any MEC member or committee volunteer thinks they can best represent our pilots by changing unions, then they need to be open about that. If they feel that is not the case, they need to state that as well. In the meantime, we will provide you with more information on the technicalities and ramifications of the trusteeship and what it will mean for the PHL pilots.
It will be incumbent on the rest of this MEC to decide where they stand in the current representation dispute. I made that clear to them in my opening remarks this morning. During our MEC meeting this week in CLT, we will be refining our strategy on separate operations and parity as well as discussing the proposal we received from the company on the announced China service. When we come out of this meeting, we will be taking our MEC plan on the road and into the crew rooms. This MEC will be providing you with a decision as well. We believe that our path is the one that will best protect you from the Nicolau Award as well as providing you with the quickest path to parity and other long-overdue contractual improvements. And most importantly, our plan will allow for separate pilot membership ratifications.
Bottom line—your MEC’s primary goal remains the same, to protect you from the damage that Nicolau caused. This MEC feels that the best way to succeed is remaining in ALPA. We look forward to discussing the strengths of our plan with you soon.
Thanks for listening. As always, fly safe and continue to look out for each other.
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