I see a lot of you wearing your blue SPC pins. Fruit loops I call them. Unless of course you are an officer then you get WHITE SPC pin. Super-duper fruit loop. Hey, it's a free country (until O's communications czar yanks my blog) so we can all express ourselves. Why have I always been so down on the SPC? Because as an institution it fails by creating division. Because as a concept in strategy it tips our hand, and basically tells our adversaries what our intentions are. It telegraphs the punch. What does this pin actually say? It says "I am getting ready , preparing, for a strike". Are you really? Do you have any concept of what a strike is? For those of us who have been in protracted labor issues we know. The rest, you guess.
So allow me to illuminate: YOU QUIT YOUR JOB. Simple as that. You say, I don't want to work here any longer. Continental pilots have a long and ugly history of crossing picket lines. 55% of domestic flying is already done by regionals not bound by our contract and union, and we belong to the largest and most sophisticated international alliance on the planet. How long do you think it will take management to outsource or otherwise cover a significant proportion of the flying? And remember, day one is as good as it gets. Now you may say: This is undermining our efforts. Only true if you are living in a bubble and believe that management is not already aware of the weapons at their disposal. To believe that you have to believe you are much, much smarter than them. Right. That is why they write your paycheck . That's why you still subscribe to a representative body that has perpetually obstructed the free exchange of ideas and majority involvement. (I'm talking about virtual council meetings folks, and I don't buy the security issue)
The other side of the story is: (a) Management does not want to alienate its customer base (b) The government will not allow us to do it anyway because we are too big, and therefore our absence too great for the nation's overall welfare to tolerate. (c) Shareholders (short term) do not want the potential volatility caused by a strike (d) Bondholders don't want a downgrade.
But back to the pins. They really bother me. They represent fractionalisation. Division. Club-within-a-club. Clique. Hey we have 25 year pins, plain ones, battle stars ( I have two somewhere), big battle stars. half wings, fruit loops, super duper fruit loops, inverted. Which clique do YOU belong to? And this is the unity that will hold a line come strike day?? ALPA has done a bang up job of keeping the troops at each others throats. Opportunities to really unify (ESOP, 9/11, bankruptcy) have all been squandered in favor of playing politics and now the word is filtering down...."pssstt ....get ready. The day is coming".
One thing I DO believe is that we need a speedy resolution to the mire that out negotiators have entered. The tar pit that could easily be your future for several years given the ostentatious demands of "The RIGHT contract" (read: everything on the wish list or no dice). So let's get the NMB volume turned up. Let's get down to the wire. NOW. If we REALLY believe that we are at an impasse (it's been a year folks. That's an impasse. Don't let them kid you this is a "complicated process" may take years to conjure...sorry finish) It is true also that management could be playing a stalling game and allow this to drag on forever. We don't know because ALPA tells us squat. Maybe Jeff Smisek really DOES want to be Doug Parker. Who knows? But we need to find out, and find out NOW.
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