Confessions of a Union Organizer

Chapter 1: You Can’t Argue With Lies of Omission

This week’s episode of Organize at All Costs, aka Eno Eno Ruof, aka 911, El Presidente enchants us with a vision of unity and an almost misty appeal to our heart-strings in the face of oppression from the monolithic company.

An all-out high-dollar media blitz results in near zero media coverage. Why? Maybe because it was timed to gin up the pilots and try and trick people into calling in sick, fatigued, and write up airplanes that aren’t really broken right in the middle of the peak season. Maybe consideration was not given to the fact that central Ohio is #1 out of the top 12 US metro areas in POVERTY, and the news does not give a goose crap about a media campaign built around a retirement program in a community where pilots are the 1% and work for the 1%. DER!

But don’t worry, Lupee managed to hire a professional photographer and make 45 pilots look like 80, even without the support of the Flight Attendants, and with the support of…... drum roll please……3 or 4 dispatchers and 10 or 11 mechanics. Actual observations put the total strength at 65 sustained for 25 minutes – a far cry from 80 pilots. So when you subtract all the IBT reps, pilot union staff, union paid pilots (e-board, stewards, certain committee members), how many pilots remain? When you further subtract the 15 (out of 45) pilots in recurrent that were intimidated into coming down for 30 minutes, how many pilots remain? When you subtract the Lazy Bears that want to protect their non-flying call in fatigued and sick and let someone else do the work habits, how many REAL pilots remained?

So if I wanted to attract attention I would have marched in the sunlight on the corner of Stelzer and Easton Way – where the traffic is. Instead, the ragged band of disorganized picketers sauntered around in the shade – almost hidden from traffic. Who noticed? Why were most of them wearing sunglasses? Embarrassed, maybe? Afraid Lupee would cut you off from your stipend? Kick you off the committee? Make you, gasp, fly???

There are just a few holes in the 911, as usual. Ask your friends in IT and facilities that were right there. They will even tell you that the event ended 40 minutes ahead of schedule. The joke at Easton is that they had to leave early…for a union break. I am sure glad my dues paid for that, and when I learned that the end-of-year sales surge is being slowed by the competition using the AIN article to sell fear of union strife as a reason to not fly the goose… well, my heart swells with pride. I can’t wait for these aces to picket in Omaha and at the Bridgeway grand opening, maybe even add more billboards or a banner tow. Maybe when real negotiating begins the bank account can be so close to zero that we have to layoff employees at the union office.

It just gets better. The 911 waxes on about how Lupee has 20 years of experience in these maters. Is that why the next section of the Watchtower invites all of us to consider filing stacks of grievances related to the 401(k)? Ginning up more fear and harm, knowing with 20 years of experience that all those filings will be converted to a single class-action and wasting everyone’s time? He has already promised to join with his IBT brothers (sisters are busy negotiating for real) and file an actual lawsuit. All of this (redundant) administrative activity requested in the "Day Of Issues" Section? Really? Day Of who? The union? 20 years of experience means we know what we are doing.

Real purpose? Create 100-200 grievances on a single issue so he can clearly and accurately tell the press that “grievances have skyrocketed” and the union has “multiple grievances” with the goose. So never mind how the company collaborated in LMRC and the Dispute Resolution Working Group to cut the arbitration docket by 2/3 just days before the picket.

It is all so clear to me now why the company should sit down and listen to these fine representatives. In fact, when was the last time the company asked for subcontracting relief? I had not heard that since, say, March. Hmmm. At the time it did not even sound like relief. It sounded like a request to send in reps to discuss options. Who spun that up into a poison pill: ["Er, 1.5c3 = EJM" or "Shut down EJM ans send 110 airplanes into the low-cost charter market and take away MORE business though direct competition. Eureka! Genius!]? Seems like the organizers are telling us what to think again. Just like they are telling dispatchers to not sweat the lack of pay raises and profit sharing this year – they’ll get full retro. Anyone out there EVER get full retro? Believe that and you can believe I have unlimited golden eggs for you. Is anyone taking the bait who say, hasn't called in fatigued more than 15 times this year or has some personal beef with individual managers or some unfinished business complex?

Have fun choking me to death with fabricated strife. Fear always unifies. Just be careful, unified, educated, and unafraid pilots don’t care where they “Get their pound.” It just might be out of you.

HONK!

QSG

The Adventures of Fuzzy Wuzzy and Diamond Jim

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no Lupees
Fuzzy Wuzzy hates to fly
Fuzzy Wuzzy likes to picket
Fuzzy Wuzzy is always tired
Does Fuzzy Wuzzy have Lupees or the perfect cause to be Lazy Bear?

Breaking News... early in November Fuzzy Wuzzy aka "Lazy Bear" suddenly buries the hatchet with his longtime nemesis Luther Lupee and they agree that they have both had enough of the companies antics of ignoring groups of people out to kill the golden goose. Last week Fuzzy drives to the Goose's Nest on his own time and pickets, posing for pictures, then makes sure all the Goose's competition believes there is labor strife at the Goose. On Wednesday, Fuzzy Wuzzy is amongst the 45 po-pilots that declare total war on the goose and proudly proclaim they are - "duh," in for a pound! Fan mail sent to the goose on Friday reveals that both Fuzzy Wuzzy and Diamond Jim called in fatigued the first chance they got. Now we know flying 72 days a year can be really grueling, and some days might require the po-lots to go to bed early and/or even, gasp, call and ask for more rest. But, see, Lazy Bear has gone and called off 19 times so far this year.

So let me ask you honkers out there... If Fuzzy Wuzzy thinks that damaging sales by joining with Lupee to fake conflict also thinks abusing policy (each call causes 1-5 flights to be rescheduled and usually causes real pilots to have to sit standby longer and/or have longer days) and harming real pilots is the way to conduct yourself professionally, then either Wuzzy has got Lupees real bad or this is just another excuse for Lazy Bear to take advantage of everyone else. I, for one, am totally shocked that our naive and inexperienced CEO would not want to meet with hot-shots like these, because they obviously have an interest in helping the goose survive and thrive, right? Sure.

Meanwhile, at Diamond Jim's Arcade and house of mirrors, this know-it-all po-lot who claims to care about other employees and wants to help the goose, promotes himself to Picket Captain on Monday, sends photos of picketers to the competition on Tuesday, and takes offense because no one wants to hear his twisted bullshit on Wednesday, then calls in fatigued on his first day of actual work. If this is Diamond Jim's idea of unity and leadership, then I suppose we are going to need all the charitable contributions we can possibly make because this kind of goose-choking will put all of us out of work.

Meanwhile, Mini-Me, Pedro's Posse, and all the other bitter ex-management and former airline-strife Lupeeites are calling for all-out war against the goose, starting with full-blown (dramatic music and drum roll please)... the devastating.... My Union Speaks for Me Silent Treatment.



Oh NOOOOO! Well, maybe the fatigue abusers and airplane breakers can help the picketers put us all out of business before we have to listen to this kind of union. At least it will be peaceful and quiet as the silent majority follows the program and watches their careers get flushed down the drain.

Have a happy weekend of silent treatments, extra work from fatigue abusers, and extra airlining to airplanes that aren't really broken.

Honk!

QSG

Lupee is chumming for Lupeeites - protect yourself

Conflict is the Lupee way...

Be patient. Suffering from Lupees can be very confusing. If you really want the truth, use your CrewOps sign-on and visit http://njcrew.netjets.com and check out the correspondence tab.

While you are there, ask yourself, "Did Lupees know what was going to happen before he got there?"

Also, why did he ignore the letter he received On December 9?

Do you think that the only way he knows is the way of conflict?

More truth to come....

Honk!

QSG

Did you know?

Did you know that Lupee was asked if his team wanted to be plan fiduciaries, so they could have all the info. they needed and influence the outcome and, through union counsel he said, "Responsibility and accountability - NO WAY!" (Maybe it was a simple, "no thanks" but the meaning is the same).

What's that, is your Lupees messing with your memory? Is that not what you were told? Were you told what ever it took to get you to march like a lemming in a circle and carry a sign so that team members at Easton could be reminded about how they have had to pay higher heathcare fees and go without a 401(k) for a year and sacrifice and sacrifice while you bring NO solutions to the table, and be totally pissed at your colleagues because every time they think of pilots picketing they remember 2005? Wow, do you call Lupee before you accept every flight assignment, too? Do you call Lupee before you take your wife out on a date to see if the destination is union-approved?

DO
YOU
THINK
FOR
YOURSELF?

I hope you remember all the cars honking at you as you watch the Golden Goose wind down.

Honk!

QSG

On The First Day of Xmas

"On the first day of Christmas, my Lupee gave to me

A dead goose hanging from a tree."

#Honk!

QSG

Honkin' it on Facebook

'Till Lupee kills The Golden Goose and we all apply for work somewhere else...

[Save The Golden Goose] Community

Honk on my wall!






Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-HONK!

QSG

Eno Eno Ruof – The Search for Intelligent Life amongst the LLL

This satirical translation of a recent communication seems to be just the right start to the first day of the rest of our careers – meaning the end of our careers as the Goose will not last much longer after tomorrow. If you have the backwards version in your hand, you will find that this one is the perfect guitar accompaniment to the one-string banjo that is the thusly- and so forth- infused communication for the Luppe Lemmings.

Dear Loyal Lupee Lemings,

(Para 1) I have fewer and fewer options to further my career and thankfully the Railway Labor Act affords me a structure from which I can shield myself with bylaws and spend your money to create the illusion of huge issues where lesser men may have been inspired to resolve the matter in a way that is good for everyone. I am putting you on notice that I am going to ignore the contract myself and use economic warfare to harm the Golden Goose (on your behalf) rather than allow myself to be defeated by the mechanism that I agreed to use to solve problems. Hopefully you will not notice that I have encouraged many people to file grievances that I knew could not be won, and allowed the arbitration docket to swell so that I could claim that the company was eroding the contract. Such a situation is typically caused by the company not capitulating to unreasonable and one-sided demands on my part.

(Para 2) Thankfully for ME, I will have a lucrative job at IBT National waiting for me. Since I am the one that reunified all of the parts of Local 284, intimidated anyone who opposed me, and can walk away with full employment as a great organizer while the company crumbles at the feet of the competition. Yes, my Lemmings, succumb to the illusion that economic warfare is warranted. I know that picketing will drive away customers in a critical year. I know that picketing will make pilots look like spoiled children. I know that the screen readers will slam down the phone and assume that every pilot is just like the ones protesting an improved retirement plan. But I don’t care. The parent company does not respect ME, senior leadership does not respect ME, many of my own board members do not respect ME, most of my former volunteers fear ME, and many stewards want to quit ME, but you will know that it was I – Lord Lupee – that killed the Goose by convincing the Ol’ Farmer in Omaha that there is not one reasonable union leader amongst us and a smaller, more manageable Goose is the responsible thing to have. I will squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze until all the gold is gone and leave my lemmings with goose poop and regret as I march East to the populist revolution with my Teamster masters. Never mind that I give no shred of evidence that rights have been eroded or a contract is harmed. You are convinced. You are my LLL.

(Para 3) That’s right, my Lupee-infused Lemmings, this picket – this ultimate public display of warfare against the Goose – is not about the issue that I told you it was about. It is about two and a half years of the one thing the leadership team has had in common the entire time – ME! Santulli had ME! Sokol had ME! Christensen had ME! Olsen had ME! Eyer has ME! Hansel has ME! YOU HAVE ME to thank as the one consistent thing in labor relations, that and my unbelievable ability to snipe and twist and defame and inflame as I am the greatest negotiator and organizer that ever lived! [Thunder clap] AH-HA-HA-HA!

(Para 4, 5, 6, and 7) Ladies and Lemmings, Mr. Conway Twitty:

In conclusion, please keep writing airplanes up. Please accept the fact that none of our volunteers ever get anything done. Please keep telling everyone you see that we are unsafe and our training sucks because me, the 35 guys that abuse the schedule and fatigue all the time, the 150 pissed-off junior guys that we mentally abuse instead of reassure, the 10% that think working steady and hard is a curse instead of a blessing, and the freakin’ idiots that we have convinced to sign union cards and follow us to Hell are takin’ the Goose down and it’s too late to stop. Just remember to sign my name to the email you send your wife telling her we had to cancel the airplane orders and we’re gonna stop taking new customers, cause this will never be interest-based anything…. It’s I-ME-ME, the final chapter.

Deceptively,

Saiboat Captain Lupee

...and the Fat Lady say, "Hoooooooooooooooooonk!" 

QSG

Disregard and Disrespect Indeed

1. Disregard for the fact that the Union retirement committee knew everything about the changes early in 2011
2. Disregard for the fact that union counsel rejected an offer from the company to act as fiduciary to the plan
3. Disregard for the fact that the law prevents non-fiduciaries from having full plan information
4. Disrespect for the membership by lying and turning a change in third-party administration into a plan change when plan benefits have been unchanged
5. Disrespect for other employees by putting up billboards and informational pickets that Lupees knows will drive owners to fly the competition
6. Disrespect for all employees by lying by omission and not revealing that the plan fiduciary is a retirement committee made up of employees and not senior leadership
7. Disregarding years of Strong Union progress, unity, and sacrifice by acting like and partnering with the very truck-driver union we spent millions of dollars separating from
8. Disregarding Union Duty of Fair Representation by spending dues money and union credibility organizing other employee groups across the globe on a foundation of lies and half-truths that will bring about the end of the company

This is not Emery Airlines, Lupees, so why are you acting like it?

#Honk!

QSG

#OCCUPYNJASAP

...Because 99% of pilots get the reputation of 1% of their pilots pretending to represent them.

Luuuupeeeee

Will someone please Google "Duty of Fair Representation?" Puh-lease!

Ho-ho-ho-HONK!

QSG

Honkin' it Twice Daily

QSG on Twiter
You won't hear me Tweeting, but I am Honkin' for my skinny little life!
Tune in and increase my chances of survival!

Honk!
QSG

December 12, 2011: A Picture Story

Brought to you by Mark Lupees and the Lupeeites.


Once there was market volatility that made selling our services difficult..

Big companies could not convince labor they need their help...

But Lupee thinks he is special, and righteous, and rallies the Lupeeites...

Once proud backers wonder why thousands of funds in a self-directed brokerage, and a 50% match on up to 15% of income (within IRS limits) results in Lupee and his Lupeeites so willing to damage the brand at Stelzer and Easton Way, and in the press. Shall he continue to support our spoiled little pilots?

Probably not.

How many kids do you have in college?

What's your excuse for not getting involved?

Honk!

QSG