What Are Pilots Saying about ALPAWatch?

 

 
Questions and Comments about ALPAWatch
 
 

 

"ALPAWatch sounds like a great idea, but will it work?" (Crew room conversations)

Yes, it is working now. When people understand what ALPAWatch is, how it functions, what its methods are, and what its objectives are they usually say "Why didn't we have this before?," "I like it!" or "We should have had this a long time ago."

While it would have been useful long before now, its time has come now because of dissatisfaction with our careers and the job our union has been doing. Going forward, the effectiveness of ALPAWatch will largely depend on how motivated the membership is about bringing about change. Somewhat surprisingly, pilot apathy still remains a threat to changing our situation. Another dangerous threat is resignation, "giving up." Don't give in to the temptation to just give up and accept our situation. You and the rest on the membership must act if you want things to get better.

Many great pilots that went before us made incredible sacrifices to secure what we once enjoyed. We owe it to them and those that will come after us to fix this mess. If that does motivate you to get involved, try a more personal reason. Consider the very real possibility that our situation can get worse. How? If we enter into merger talks without strong, fair minded leadership on our side, things could get much worse. We cannot assume that nothing is going to happen till the end of this contract. That attitude leaves us open to more threats and we will cause us to miss opportunities for improvements in the meantime.

ALPAWatch is being well received in part because of discontent and the recognition that we must make some changes in how we, the union, conduct ourselves. The climate is right for changing the way our union works and behaves. That means changing the attitudes and behaviors of our leadership. That will enable us to improve our careers. The extremely simplified list of steps that get us from where we are now to where we need to be are:

  1. Strengthen our Union Leadership
  2. That in turns strengthens our union
  3. A strong union is the key to forcing the company to negotiate contract improvements. Negotiations start now. There is no limit to changes that can be achieved through Letters of Agreement (LOA's).
  4. Better negotiations, along with other tactics (not just at contract time, but starting now!) delivers us better careers. Negotiations are how we got what we had and negotiations are how we will get it back. Tactics are methods used to bring the company to the the negotiation table. How long will all this take? As quickly as possible is the goal but this process must happen sooner or later. Most of us are not leaving this job, so now is the time to start.

ALPAWatch is here to organize the membership, and by doing so accomplish the steps above. Only a grassroots approach can accomplish the step number 1. Some of the methods and tools ALPAWatch is using to accomplish these steps are:

  1. Keeping the Membership informed on Union activities or inactivates as the case may be, i.e. Hot Topics and ALPAWatch Newsletter
  2. Providing the Membership methods to make their voice heard with a collective thought, i.e. Surveys, Petitions and Polls. The First of the Polls and Petitions are coming soon
  3. Gathering the opinions of the Membership on subjects the union is not acting upon, or the union is acting contrary to the will of the membership, i.e. Surveys. 2 Surveys are underway now.
  4. Encouraging cultural reform within the Leadership, i.e. Developing and Implementing an Ethics Pledge
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"ALPAWatch will fold. The Union will shut it down" (Note Written on Crew Room Poster in DTW)

The Pilots that have worked so hard to start ALPAWatch are dedicated to seeing it through. They are passionate and have no intention of "folding." As for Union Leadership, some Union leaders might not like having an Organization like ALPAWatch looking over their shoulder. That is understandable. Likes and dislikes aside, there isn't much the union can do to stop ALPAWatch from functioning. Furthermore, there is no legitimate reason the union leadership should want to impede the efforts of ALPAWatch. Given some time to develop, most will agree that ALPAWatch is an asset for NWA ALPA.
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"Is this a Red Ninja or Some Blue organization?" (Note Written on Crew Room Poster in MSP)

The short answer is Neither. ALPAWatch is a "color blind," non-political, neutral party that is independent of NWA ALPA.

It is not surprising that many pilots automatically assume ALPAWatch is some splinter group of pilots with a hidden agenda to promote their own special interest, "take over" the union, or some such. It is not surprising that many pilots might mistakenly make such an assumption because the union they all belong to, NWA ALPA, has an unfortunate legacy of being divisive rather than unifying. This has created an "every man for himself" culture. The strength of a union is unity, not every man for himself. While some individuals might benefit from this environment, as a group we suffer. The culture of our union must change!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the long standing practices of political feuds, backstabbing, and the preying of one pilot group on another must come to an end. That end will not come easily, it must nevertheless come to an end. The end of those practices, and the attitudes behind them, starts with the admission that this behavior has been an accepted practice within the union. The end starts by agreeing that it is a destructive practice and with all the other outside assaults we have on our careers, we can no longer afford this practice. Make no mistake, it will end. The only question is when and under what circumstances it will end.

If it is allowed to end by natural causes, it will end through years of attrition, or by a merger, or by liquidation or by a host of other unforeseeable events. All of these methods are unacceptable. They all leave us fighting amongst ourselves while our careers continue to suffer. The best way it can end is by design and with considerable effort. To do otherwise will come at great expense to this pilot group, and conversely at a great profit to airline managers.

To help facilitate this change and bring an end to these destructive practices, the leadership of our union must make a commitment to bring it to an end. ALPAWatch is here, promoting equal, fair treatment of ALL NWA pilots; expecting and demanding the same from our union leadership. There is no acceptable argument for this union's leadership to do otherwise.

ALPAWatch alone cannot make these changes occur. The leadership is not responsible to ALPAWatch. The leadership is responsible to the membership. It is up to the Membership to hold our leadership accountable for their actions on this issue and all others. It is ALPAWatch's job to provide the Membership with the tools, information and methods required to hold our Leadership accountable to their commitments. ALPAWatch will gather the information and point out activities that may need to change. It is up to the membership to determine if action is required. If it is, ALPAWatch will provide the necessary support to bring about that action.

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"What is the Structure of ALPAWatch" (From an Email)

Every pilot on the NWA seniority list is a member of ALPAWatch; some just don’t know that yet.  That means it is an open organization working on the behalf of all NWA Pilots. ALPAWatch is a grassroots organization.  It is designed to work from the bottom up.  Improve membership participation in the union process and make certain that the leadership of NWA ALPA is responsive to the needs and concerns of the membership.  In short, the idea is for the membership to drive the leadership.

The pilots that created ALPAWatch and make it function are technically referred to as the Independent Membership Watch Committee (IMWC).  While this sounds very official what it really means is it is a group of pilots that want to make things better for all the pilots at NWA.  The members of that group consist of me (I'm Kevin Jones DTW320FO. I helped start this thing when I had the idea of a union leadership ethics pledge and the rest followed) and other pilots that have volunteered to help make this work.  We need more help so feel free to jump in with any time you have to offer. As volunteers, the IMWC is not a set group of pilots.  Different pilots do what work they can, when they can.  Any NWA pilot can help the IMWC if they agree to a few things.  They must agree with the principles of ALPAWatch, not only its stated Mission Statement, Objectives and Pledge (all on the web site), but also agree that the actions ALPAWatch takes must result in positive changes and conditions that are fair and as equal as possible to all NWA pilots.  Personal agendas are set aside.  They cannot have any past or present NWA management affiliation. They cannot be in a NWA ALPA leadership position, past or present, and they can have no ambitions to hold those positions.  ALPAWatch is independent of the NWA ALPA leadership, which is one of its sources of credibility.

You can read more about this on the web site by clicking on "What is ALPAWatch?" or "A Brief History of ALPAWatch."

The founders of ALPAWatch made this a grassroots organization. ALPAWatch will always be an open organization where all can see its operations at work.

The concept of an organization like ALPAWatch is new to our union.  ALPAWatch is in its infancy.  Its future, how it grows and what it accomplishes is up to the pilots at NWA. If the pilots agree with the need for ALPAWatch, then much will change for the better. If pilots are OK with the way things are, then ALPAWatch will not be in a position to accomplish very much. Either way, people like me are only here to get it off the ground and do the work necessary to make it function.
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"Is this for all ALPA Carriers or just Northwest?" (Crew room conversations)

ALPAWatch is just for Northwest Pilots. It was started by NWA Pilots for NWA Pilots. The name, "ALPAWatch" just seemed like a good idea at the time. It was never intended to extend beyond NWA ALPA.
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"All this sounds good. What are you asking me to do?" (Crew room conversations)

For ALPAWatch to be effective, its needs as many NWA Pilots participating as possible. What is participation?

  1. Subscribe tor The ALPAWatch Newsletter. ALPAWatch is voluntary. If you don't subscribe, there is no way for you to know what is going on. You will get Newsletters...
    • When Something new or hot comes up
    • When Your action is requested, such as taking a new survey, poll, petition
    • When Surveys, Polls and Petitions open or close. A will get a copy of the results when they close.
    • When ALPAWatch sends or receives correspondence to/from NWA ALPA Leadership, you will get a copy.
    • When Other assorted issues come up. Don't Expect daily updates. We know everyone is busy. We intend to keep the messages to a minimum.
  2. Take the Surveys, Polls and Petitions when they become available. This is one of the primary ways ALPAWatch has of making your opinion and desires known to the union leadership. The larger the number of pilots participating in these surveys, poll, and petitions, the more likely it is that the leadership will follow the desires of the membership.
  3. Promote ALPAWatch to other pilots. Tell them about ALPAWatch and encourage them to participate as well. The easiest way for you to Promote ALPAWatch is to send an email to every NWA Pilot you have in your email address book. Send them the link to ALPAWatch.org along with a recommendation. Again, numbers count. The more pilots we have taking surveys and signing petitions, the faster change will come.
  4. Read the emails ALPAWatch sends out. Those emails will keep you up to date on information you will not get anywhere else, tell you when something new is on the web site or ask you to take a survey/poll/petition. Occasionally, you might be asked to participate in an Email Campaign, which means sending an email to your LEC Reps and the MEC. We make it easy. One click and you will be able to send all you reps and the NWA ALPA Board and email.

"I want out of ALPA. Why not just start a new Union?" (From Crew room posters, emails, conversations, etc.)

When a group of pilots sat down and started ALPAWatch, we did a top down assessment of what should happen to restore our profession, our contract, our careers and our dignity.  The question of whether to start a new union or not was at the top of that discussion.  It was quickly pointed out that the same union that gave away 30+ years of contract improvements is the same union that got those improvements in the first place.  So, what meaning can we take from that fact?  It means that this union worked very well for this pilot group in the past and there is no reason it cannot do so again in the future.  However, for NWA ALPA to produce the successes in the future that it has enjoyed in the past, a couple of things must be put into place.  The union must have good leaders.  The pilot group must have good reasons to believe, trust and follow those leaders (which sadly has not been the case in the recent past).  The pilot group must give the leadership direction.  Securing strong leadership, holding that leadership responsible and ensuring group unity are the first crucial steps, the foundation or repairing the damage.

Starting over with a new union will take years. During those years, little or nothing will improve. And, after several years of work we could be no better off. If the new union was dominated by the same attitudes and behaviors as the old (likely because those in ALPA politics now would be the ones most likely to organize the new union), it would operate much the same as what we have now. The problem is not what alphabetic letters we used to define our union but the behavior of the leadership and to some extent, the membership. The fundamental structure of ALPA (at least NWA ALPA) is sound. Its deficiencies lie in the leadership, more specifically the attitudes and behaviors of the leadership, the culture if you will. Change the culture and you change the behavior. Change the behavior and you have to opportunity to make past successes tomorrows realities.

The membership must take back this union. They need to clearly define what is and is not acceptable behavior from the leadership, clearly define what acceptable and unacceptable conduct is and then hold the leadership accountable. Only then can the membership define what direction and what results it expects from this union and have any confidence in achieving those expectations. ALPAWatch was created to give the membership the organization and tools it needs to do just that. All it needs now is your participation.