So what's up at Polar? (Merged again & again)

[jumbojet1159]

Is this a good thing?

Someone at Atlas gave me this:
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Good evening crewmembers, this is MEC Vice Chairman John Caputo with a VARS update for Friday evening, January 13, 2006.

This week, the MEC and members of the Negotiating Committee met in Washington with ALPA staff and Polar representatives to pre brief for the planned meeting next week with the company over the company’s proposed merger protocols.

While it appears some protocols are possible, more discussion remains on some key areas of concern. Since the company still has yet to provide all the required data, we still have questions about how they are proceeding with the merger.

After the meeting, the Polar MEC advised us that they intended to file Article 8 charges against approximately 160 Atlas crewmembers. To call this disgusting is a gross understatement, especially in light of the fact that the Polar Strike Chairman himself advised the ALPA Executive Council that NO Atlas pilot was a scab.

The inescapable fact remains that the Polar crewmembers were set up for a strike by an MEC Chairman who caved into management 36 hours into a 30 day cooling off and set his own pilots up for failure…and when he screwed that up, he tried to force us into violating our CBA…

When a Federal Judge issued a TRO against us…he went out and lied about it not only to his own crews…but to other ALPA carriers…because what he wanted, in his own words, was for this MEC and ALPA National to order YOU to violate the Federal judges order…disgusting.

After being proven wrong time and again in his interpretations and protestations, he then began a cheap, gutless assault on the staff and employees of ALPA National and to this day continues to encourage the spreading of lies about Atlas pilots worldwide…

Folks, there are not words yet written to describe this lack of morals.

He stood on a soapbox time and time again over the past two years, wailing that we really have one common enemy…well…WE Atlas pilots do. The same people who openly volunteered to scab us at the end of our cooling off…who screwed up the Alliance Agreement arbitration which affected us as well. The same people who have lied to us, ALPA National and every other airline…they’ve broken promises and abused people wherever they go.

These are the people we are supposed to merge with? First they cry, and then they lie…a pattern they have exhibited since “they” bought “us.”

How pathetic.

But, they wanted a fight…they’ve got one. Every step of the way. We will fight the Article 8 charges and we will assist each crewmember wrongly accused who seeks redress in the civil courts as well. A team of crewmembers is working right now with lawyers on a separate civil suit against each and every Polar crewmember involved…and the damages sought should well be in the millions of dollars…against those people.

As always…Polar knows better…ALPA National has made it clear time and again to Polar that they were on thin ice and should not be stupid and attack you…and has advised them again that they will get NO support from ALPA National on the lawsuit. In other words…they’re on their own.

Yesterday, an unsigned letter from an unnamed, so called “Strike Breakers Committee” sent Dave Bourne a certified letter, demanding he provide addresses for crewmembers they did not have. Or that he order ALPA to provide them…DEMANDED???

After they used every lie possible to try and trick ALPA staff into violating ALPA policy to provide the addresses. And then went to other cargo airlines, hoping to get the information. Again, pretty pathetic. But, as we said…they started this fight.

We’ll finish it.

Stay tuned for updates. And despite these individuals, stay professional…like you always have. And fly safe.



Re; John Caputo Atlas MEC Vice-Chairman
Caputo is ex. Eastern Airlines. To the best of my knowledge he does not have a valid medical. Due to being grossly overweight don't know about being sent back from Anchorage but he was not allowed into the Polar Strike Center in Herndon. Due to his antics verbally attacking personnel in the Center and also as a suspected conduit to Cato.