If we want a merger you guys better read this
In case you haven't figured it out yet, PHL and DCA are in bed with PHX and working with a group of Mike Cleary haters to unseat Cleary and replace him with EVP Gary Hummel. If this happens you can kiss your seniority goodbye and thank Dave Ciabattoni, Gary Hummel, Mark King, Woody Menear, Rob Streble, and Eric Rowe along with their unlikely buddies from the Army of Leonidas for it (and PHL and DCA Reps.)
A cog in the machinery of this plan was revealed to you with a betrayal of your trust when on February 19th, PHL and DCA published a joint update wrought with harsh public criticism of the man in charge of defending your seniority, President Mike Cleary. If you are not outraged by the action of PHL/DCA you should check your pulse because you are about to have the knife twisted in your back by the Reps. from these two domiciles. Rest assured that their take on what has been going on behind the scenes in their update is far from accurate. The process of unseating Cleary has been slow and methodical and this is just the latest blow to the nail in the coffin of your career courtesy of the out going PHL reps and DCA.
Here is another tidbit of betrayal by the PHL/DCA Reps. you have never heard before:
At 1900 on January 20th, there was an “Informal” conference call conducted by some members of the BPR. The request for the call was sent out January 19th by PHL Chairman Doug Burke presumably at the behest of Eric Ferguson and was quickly supported by all PHX, PHL, and DCA Representatives. CLT Representatives objected to the meeting because it was in violation of the Union Operating Manual's requirement to notify the membership of any call as well as the planned subject matter of such 48 hours in advance. No Officers were invited to participate and no minutes were taken and you will not find any record of the proceedings on the USAPA website. In short, the meeting never happened - it was behind closed doors, sound familiar?
The topic of discussion on the conference call was how to teach the USAPA President a lesson with regard to an email he had recently sent out that some members of the BPR took exception to. The action taken at the conference call - which is also a violation of the Union Operating Manual because no action is allowed to be taken at an information only conference call - was to task PHX Vice Chairman Eric Ferguson (the founder of Army of Leonidas) to write a letter of censure against the President to be signed by willing BPR members and emailed to the membership. Unbelievably, during debate it was the PHX Vice Chairman who spoke against such a public censure and DCA and PHL Vice Chairmen Pete Dugstad and John Dubarry who insisted that the letter be sent. At the end of debate, Dugstad and Dubarry prevailed and the letter was drafted by Ferguson but in the following days and after much emotional lobbying behind the scenes by certain members of USAPA, it did not see the light of day. However, on February 19th DCA/PHL published their own version of this devastating piece of gossip as their "joint update" you have probably seen.
If you think these actions are treacherous, you are correct. If you think that toppling Mike Cleary and replacing him with Gary Hummel (who will win with 1700 west votes right out of the gate) is the road to protect your contract aspirations and your seniority, you are sorely mistaken. There are two goals here...get a contract, and fix the seniority mess and we cannot accomplish either if every minute of every day of our Reps. and our Officers time is taken up with this nonsense. You, the line pilots must, and can make it stop. Let your DCA and PHL Reps. know that you are outraged and tell them to cease and desist. The PHL Reps. have just over one month left in their terms and this is their parting shot? - their legacy? Surely they can bridle their near sided urges for that long. And the DCA Reps? Well, that's another story. They are barely into their terms and they have betrayed you harshly so some brainstorming will need to be done to fix that problem.
Is there hope in the future? Yes. On April 1st three new PHL Reps. take office and two of them, Steve Szpyrka and either Mike Gillies or Brian Pflanzer (runoff) are committed to work in steadfast dedication with those who are focused on a contract with a fix to the seniority issue. That will greatly change the make-up of the BPR and hopefully help end this destructive behavior. Even if you have questions about the fitness of our leadership it should be clear that the forward looking decisions of the BPR should be made by those who will be charged to manage the outcome of those decisions - the incoming reps, not those who see their impending departure as an excuse to recklessly fire fatal shots with a perceived lack of accountability.
Call everyone you know now. Tell them to send a strong message to the BPR that this nonsense will not be tolerated and that they, all of them, will be held accountable.