Bob, Lee Seham learned from the best. Like father like son. Lee Seham was the "professional" legal counsel for AMFA during the period they lost 80% of their membership. Bob face it. The Seham law firm has done nothing but harm to labor. SWAPA, USAPA, and the APA know that and you think they are awesome. Your judgement is horrible and luckily enough smart AMTs woke up and vote yes this time. Too bad they didn't wake up and call BS when you recommended we vote down the May 2010 TA. Now we are still working through the after effects of the killer judgement of your dream team of Pike, Ruiz, Rojas, and Peterson.
The facts are there but hey, you are out for yourself Bob and those pesky overhaul members in TUL...you could give a damn about them as long as you get your geo-pay.
From: Dave Bates
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:05:17 -0600
To: 'DPA Mail'
Subject: RE: Introduction to the Delta Pilots Association
Mr. Caplinger,
Sorry for the delay in responding to you.
I want to be perfectly clear. In my opinion, a breakaway from ALPA would likely prove highly disadvantageous for the pilots at Delta and destructive to our profession. When APA broke away from ALPA in 1963 the labor environment for airline pilots in the United States was far different than it is today. JFK was the President at the time and had recently come out strongly in favor of organized pilots in the Southern Airways dispute of 1962. American’s pilots prospered during the benign days of regulation which ended abruptly with the onset of deregulation.
I have always thought it is better to work within the existing political framework to achieve reform than by wreaking havoc upon one’s organization. After I was hired at American, I led the battle against the two tier pay system – not by trying to tear things apart, but by working within the system. Ultimately, with patience and perseverance, we prevailed.
I view the Seham law firm as an organization which has done significant harm for a very long time to American organized labor. Over the years they have tried to raid nearly every union in the airline industry and succeeded in decertifying AFA/IBT/IAM and ALPA. Their predecessor firm, Seham, Klien & Zelman, represented management at a number of airlines and steamship companies and helped break unions at El Al and indirectly assisted Frank Lorenzo at Eastern Airlines.
Shortly after the Sehams were dismissed at APA, they began coordinating with a pro-management dissident group at American called the AICA which has been trying to destabilize and decertify APA. They are also involved on American’s property in a decertification effort with the TWU and were heavily involved with the disaster which occurred with the mechanics at Northwest.
I hope that you will carefully evaluate your present course of action. I know that institutional inertia is a difficult thing to overcome, however I think that a Delta breakaway from ALPA would further fracture and destabilize our profession and play right into the hands of management. I am working in exactly the opposite direction – trying to move pilot unions closer together. It might interest you to know that APA has recently signed a services agreement with ALPA to help APA in its efforts to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
Please do not continue to misrepresent my position. I stand strongly behind the leadership at ALPA and have been working diligently to forge closer cooperation and coordination between APA and ALPA. To be clear, I will yield my veto power at CAPA to defeat any attempts by the DPA to make any sort of overtures to CAPA.
Sincerely,
Captain Dave Bates
President
