Letter to ALPA MEC Chairman Jack Stephan

[phasersonstun2]

Who wants pizza?

 

[BoeingBoy]

No anchovies on mine....

Jim

 

[PITbull]

I realize nothing I say will assuage the anger of the Easties but I have to point something out: The USAir junior captain and FO as of the close of the merger were placed at the same seniority as the junior AWA ones. That's what relative seniority means. A DOH integration would've put junior USAir FOs far senior to AWA captains yet you argue that's "fair". There's a reason this went to abitration and Nicolau explained his decision.

This is one of the many reasons why merging with a Legacy and a regional, relatively newer carrier just doesn't work!

 

[exB717Flyer]

A DOH seniority integration would have protected every class on the property with something called "conditions and restrictions", a fence, if you will.

Oh really? So you mean DOH wouldn't make a two-thirds of the AWA guys furlough-fodder? That is, the bottom of the list gets furloughed first. IMHO a fair integration shares the burden if furloughs occur. The USAir furloughs took place before the merger closed so it's from that snapshot forward of which I speak. DOH is not and has never been the only fair way to integrate. Every merger is different and ALPA Merger Policy appropriately accounts for this. The only people who scream "DOH always" are those who would benefit from it.

This is one of the many reasons why merging with a Legacy and a regional, relatively newer carrier just doesn't work!

You may be right. Good thing USAirways merged with AWA instead of a regional.

 

[Callsign_Cactus]

After reading what can only be described as regurgitated BS over the last few days, I am convinced more than ever this merger should have never taken place. We “moronsâ€￾ at AWA would have continued to grow and prosper while you SOBs in the East continued to rot in hell. Oh how I wish I could change the past.

I remember the day the merger was announced, the East were jumping up and down singing glory days and praising their savior, and the West were crying the blues because we knew just how dysfunctional the piece of crap airline we were marrying really was. All in the West felt we just tied up to the Titanic. Six months into the merger that nauseous feeling in the West slowly dissipated as we realized things might be ok. – boy were we wrong.

With that said, nobody can change the past so we are stuck with each other, unfortunately. I was ready to upgrade before the merger was announced but now I am years and years away, so all of you that are whining about the award go F@#! yourselves – I was screwed too. I hope the East does not vote in a new contract, or better yet decertifies ALPA. That would be the biggest joke of the industry for many decades to come. The Transition Agreement (TA) is a binding legal document and no matter what you guys do, the list will never change and a court will force the implementation sooner rather than later. Furthermore, what many do not realize is the West operation will be on the East certificate this summer. After the idiots in the East decertify ALPA and are in material breach, the Company will begin the process of placing all growth/replacement aircraft in the West operation (on East FAA certificate) and slowly downsize and furlough in the East. Eventually we can rid ourselves of the cancer by replacing the entire East operation and pretending this whole nightmare never occurred. Please, please, make it happen!

The real “travestyâ€￾ in all of this is the complete incompetence and reckless behavior of the East MEC. Throughout this whole process they raised the expectation of the East pilot group to orbital levels all the while knowing they had absolutely no chance for DOH. Their merger committee told them so but it fell on deaf ears. In contrast, the West MEC preached a voice of caution - we did not know what to expect. I only wish we pursued the staple campaign since this was nothing less than the AA-TWA acquisition. Just be thankful for your job and a more than generous seniority award. It is a whole lot better than the alternative.

When the emotions are checked and cooler heads prevail, the East FOs will soon understand exactly what relative means – you will upgrade in relatively the same amount of time regardless of what you think. Age 60 will change anyway so all of the attrition you speak of will disappear.

BTW, I am sure you guys will really like calling my name (cactus) after certifcate merge this summer. It really is a catchy call sign.

I’ll never fly with an arrogant East prick.

Good letter Chip.

Also, from what I understand, ALPA needs to be removed completely. If you keep ALPA representing the US pilots that "list" will remain lurking in the background, which could mean it could come to fruition once many US east pilots retire.

Simply put, the only way to rid the pilots of that pesky senority stealing list is to exterminate ALPA.

Change can be a good thing.

Later,
Eye

 

[SkyRat]

After reading what can only be described as regurgitated BS over the last few days, I am convinced more than ever this merger should have never taken place. We “moronsâ€￾ at AWA would have continued to grow and prosper while you SOBs in the East continued to rot in hell. Oh how I wish I could change the past.

I remember the day the merger was announced, the East were jumping up and down singing glory days and praising their savior, and the West were crying the blues because we knew just how dysfunctional the piece of crap airline we were marrying really was. All in the West felt we just tied up to the Titanic. Six months into the merger that nauseous feeling in the West slowly dissipated as we realized things might be ok. – boy were we wrong.

With that said, nobody can change the past so we are stuck with each other, unfortunately. I was ready to upgrade before the merger was announced but now I am years and years away, so all of you that are whining about the award go F@#! yourselves – I was screwed too. I hope the East does not vote in a new contract, or better yet decertifies ALPA. That would be the biggest joke of the industry for many decades to come. The Transition Agreement (TA) is a binding legal document and no matter what you guys do, the list will never change and a court will force the implementation sooner rather than later. Furthermore, what many do not realize is the West operation will be on the East certificate this summer. After the idiots in the East decertify ALPA and are in material breach, the Company will begin the process of placing all growth/replacement aircraft in the West operation (on East FAA certificate) and slowly downsize and furlough in the East. Eventually we can rid ourselves of the cancer by replacing the entire East operation and pretending this whole nightmare never occurred. Please, please, make it happen!

The real “travestyâ€￾ in all of this is the complete incompetence and reckless behavior of the East MEC. Throughout this whole process they raised the expectation of the East pilot group to orbital levels all the while knowing they had absolutely no chance for DOH. Their merger committee told them so but it fell on deaf ears. In contrast, the West MEC preached a voice of caution - we did not know what to expect. I only wish we pursued the staple campaign since this was nothing less than the AA-TWA acquisition. Just be thankful for your job and a more than generous seniority award. It is a whole lot better than the alternative.

When the emotions are checked and cooler heads prevail, the East FOs will soon understand exactly what relative means – you will upgrade in relatively the same amount of time regardless of what you think. Age 60 will change anyway so all of the attrition you speak of will disappear.

BTW, I am sure you guys will really like calling my name (cactus) after certifcate merge this summer. It really is a catchy call sign.

I’ll never fly with an arrogant East prick.

Great freakin post... Maybe they'll wake up, or maybe they wont.

It's in their hands to MAKE a change and move on. And still have a paycheck and a job!

With their arrogance and the ME, ME, ME attitude, I seriously doubt it. :unsure:

TL

 

[grog_sit_reserv]

To be fair, no one ever promised the east pilots DOH. The proposal of the east Merger Committee to the arbitrator was heavily in favor of DOH, but even the Merger Committee never promised anything.

What was promised was that the integration would avoid any "windfalls" by one group at the expense of the other. This is promised in the current ALPA merger policy, which Nicolau regrettably missed.

I doubt anyone here on the east even EXPECTED the results to be DOH, or even what was proposed by the east Merger Committee.

What we all DID expect was a fair compromise between the east and west proposals; IOW, pretty much everybody pissed off on both sides, but ready to move on. The fact that the east pilots are "ready to rumble" and the west pilots are high-fiving each other with Chesire-cat grins means that a fair compromise was not reached. In fact, even to the casual observer, NO COMPROMISE was reached.

The west pilots are high fiving because we expected to be F**ked on this and we weren't. We were shocked.

We read the ruling and lo and behold, it was fair. With relative seniority carrying the day and furloughed guys being placed where every other furloughed guy got placed in every other merger (save one). We're happy out west because for the first time since the merger we didn't get hosed!

Decertify ALPA, go ahead. Please. But the fact of the matter is that you got protection for the widebodies. And the list was merged fairly by Relative Seniority as per the ALPA merger policy. DOH was DOA. You shot for the moon and fell short. Get over it.

 

[700UW]

ALPA can request an executive session with the panel.