Curious how just six weeks ago the Polar MEC was throwing their ALPA pins at John Prater and thumbing their noses at ALPA. Now, when Polar starts to toe the ALPA line, ALPA decides to go forward with the merger. I urge you all to read this:
All Crewmembers, this is Dave Allen with a Teamsters message for May 28, 2008.
Polar and Atlas crewmembers have a choice to make this week. Authorization Cards are due.
The merged seniority list was delivered to Atlas Headquarters today.
Polar crewmembers, you may be just a little bit shell shocked by now. ALPA implied that you would never merge, and now ALPA has crumbled, reversed course and succumbed to the pressure of the decertification. I was going to point out the inconsistencies of your MEC who now publicly support the ALPA decision to merge Polar and Atlas, but in the end I decided that would not be fair. Why? I suspect that ALPA National informed your MEC, that to continue to blast them would result in your MEC being placed in receivership, with a trustee appointed by ALPA. Your MEC, therefore really has no choice but to publicly support the merger.
Is this the union you really want to belong in, a union who changes course so easily and a union who can so easily control your MEC? What will happen when you need to stand up to the Company, will ALPA be there for you??? Or will they switch sides just as quickly.
I think that ALPA's will is broken forever. When the merged seniority list was given to the Company, it triggered the 270-day merger clock and a merger from this point is a certainty, it is not reversible. This is a legal watershed event. ALPA National’s fight against the merger has led you into a position that has lost jobs. ALPA National is supporting grievance actions against Atlas Air as an excuse to destroy your fellow union members, and ultimately is concerned with one thing, keeping our dues money.
ALPA National fought the merger with your jobs, these jobs are now lost by one very quick policy reversal. ALPA National caved so easily! I urge you to consider a life under ALPA, and I do mean under. You are a "B" carrier and will be treated as a non-legacy carrier, a "cargo hauler" as long as you remain at ALPA. We are all 2nd class members under ALPA. This is not how a Trade Union should treat its members.
The Atlas and Polar crews have a lot to gripe about... the Company, each other, past sins, the merged seniority list, etc. It is well past time that we put our two groups together and start the healing process. There is a link at the beginning of the text version of this message which leads to a paper on Trade Unionism.
I urge you to read and think about the impact it has on our situations. I fault ALPA National for allowing us to snipe at each other. Allowing our situation is not in keeping with true trade unionism. A trade unionist puts aside strong emotional issues when it will hurt his group or that of a fellow union crewmember. If you were told in the past that we would never merge, that was an opinion subject to debate. The debate is over. We are definitely merging now. We need to mend fences. Polar brothers and sisters, determine which union will serve you better, ALPA National or the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Ask yourself this question, will I be better off at ALPA in five years (if they survive) as a lonely cargo "B" carrier in a legacy airline paying much higher dues? Or better off in a cargo focused Teamsters organization where trade unionism is not just words on paper? A Teamsters union where there are no "B" carriers.
Polar crews; bring your strong scope clause and some of your work rules, enjoy our pay scale and the better contract we will achieve with our Teamster Local professional negotiator that does not have an IBT or ALPA legacy agenda, just our interests at heart. Join us. Fly any pattern your seniority will hold including all the DHL flying, rest easy knowing that Atlas Worldwide Holdings will be responsible to get you to work with gateway travel. Both MECs will be dissolved and new joint elections will be held. Join us today. Mail in an authorization card.
Goodbye until next time.