Quit the AOA and join the DPA
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Hong Kong
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iluvpx,
I know I am probably flogging a dead horse here as you seem pretty set in your views....but....what is the alternative to collective representation? Do people honestly believe that we would be better off if we had never formed collectively? I know there is a lot of suspicion over what the AOA has done over the last few years - but if you have access to AOA info you will see that we actually have SOs, FOs and freighter guys in the new GC. So this GC is probably the most representative GC we have had for a while!
This is my last roll of the dice. If 12 months from now we have membership as low as we have now, if people are not prepared to help themselves, then I will cease being Don Quixote and will forever leave the damned windmill alone! I would say that I would post like you do then but if I get to that stage I will be too apathetic to say anything. The fact that you are prepared to keep complaining about the AOA so vociferously suggests to me that you would like to see change but you just have zero faith in the AOA GC to effect it?
There are lots of really cool sayings I could quote - such as "what the mind can conceive you can achieve" or my favourite "if you change nothing then nothing will ever change" - but at the end of the day it really is up to us. I remember reading about a company leader who said after a meeting "ok you have given me 100s of reasons why we can't do it, now start working on how we can do it".
So thats where we are today....past AOA GC's have made us revote every time they didn't like what we voted, they have not pushed for industrial action when people were crying out for it. They gave up on the 49ers. They have appeared more like the French Vichy government of WW2 than the Resistance....the list could go on and on. So, do we just give up and say there is no hope?
Call me a conducter, an optimist, or just plain naive - but I genuinely believe we can improve things. So rather than tell me 100s of ways the AOA is doomed to failure, give me a realistic way to make things better! And in case you missed the sarcasm (stillalbatross) no I don't think any other union is going to do our dirty work for us....it is up to us to fix things.
I know I am probably flogging a dead horse here as you seem pretty set in your views....but....what is the alternative to collective representation? Do people honestly believe that we would be better off if we had never formed collectively? I know there is a lot of suspicion over what the AOA has done over the last few years - but if you have access to AOA info you will see that we actually have SOs, FOs and freighter guys in the new GC. So this GC is probably the most representative GC we have had for a while!
This is my last roll of the dice. If 12 months from now we have membership as low as we have now, if people are not prepared to help themselves, then I will cease being Don Quixote and will forever leave the damned windmill alone! I would say that I would post like you do then but if I get to that stage I will be too apathetic to say anything. The fact that you are prepared to keep complaining about the AOA so vociferously suggests to me that you would like to see change but you just have zero faith in the AOA GC to effect it?
There are lots of really cool sayings I could quote - such as "what the mind can conceive you can achieve" or my favourite "if you change nothing then nothing will ever change" - but at the end of the day it really is up to us. I remember reading about a company leader who said after a meeting "ok you have given me 100s of reasons why we can't do it, now start working on how we can do it".
So thats where we are today....past AOA GC's have made us revote every time they didn't like what we voted, they have not pushed for industrial action when people were crying out for it. They gave up on the 49ers. They have appeared more like the French Vichy government of WW2 than the Resistance....the list could go on and on. So, do we just give up and say there is no hope?
Call me a conducter, an optimist, or just plain naive - but I genuinely believe we can improve things. So rather than tell me 100s of ways the AOA is doomed to failure, give me a realistic way to make things better! And in case you missed the sarcasm (stillalbatross) no I don't think any other union is going to do our dirty work for us....it is up to us to fix things.
So rather than tell me 100s of ways the AOA is doomed to failure, give me a realistic way to make things better....it is up to us to fix things.
Numero Crunchero...wisest words spoken here for many a while. Well said.
Stop whining about what VOLUNTEERS are/are not not doing for you. Get of your collective backsides and do something for yourselves.
Numero Crunchero...wisest words spoken here for many a while. Well said.
Stop whining about what VOLUNTEERS are/are not not doing for you. Get of your collective backsides and do something for yourselves.
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: BC
Age: 86
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NC, great points...as usual.
I have already suggested ideas for moving ahead; however, it all starts with disbanding the AOA.
From there, I'd be happy negotiating directly with the company on my own, or bringing in a professional association. One where our dues would go to hiring professional negotiators to deal with the company's professional negotiators, there by leveling the playing field.
The problem is that we have too many volunteers that have no idea what they are doing, however well intentioned. If they want to volunteer for something, go help in a soup kitchen. We have seen what happens to people who volunteer for things that are out of their depth..a la subic2hebe. Volunteering for something doesn't automatically qualify you for the job.
People on the GC should be vetted through previous job experience, schooling, prior business experience. Not put in place due to the fact they volunteered. Getting a strong, knowledgeable, and savvy GC should be number one, and if they are incapable of handling complicated tasks, like corporate negotiations, then they should hire someone who is and be quiet while the grown-ups talk.
I hope you can see the common sense in that.
PX
**I had to edit this in there to highlight my point. Just look at BusyB, one of our esteemed GC members of yore. Check out his posts, always one or two lines of catty retorts to people wanting change. He doesn't seem to have two brain cells to rub together and says nothing constructive. He embodies the juvenile performance of the broken AOA. Nothing will change with idiots like that on the GC.**
I have already suggested ideas for moving ahead; however, it all starts with disbanding the AOA.
From there, I'd be happy negotiating directly with the company on my own, or bringing in a professional association. One where our dues would go to hiring professional negotiators to deal with the company's professional negotiators, there by leveling the playing field.
The problem is that we have too many volunteers that have no idea what they are doing, however well intentioned. If they want to volunteer for something, go help in a soup kitchen. We have seen what happens to people who volunteer for things that are out of their depth..a la subic2hebe. Volunteering for something doesn't automatically qualify you for the job.
People on the GC should be vetted through previous job experience, schooling, prior business experience. Not put in place due to the fact they volunteered. Getting a strong, knowledgeable, and savvy GC should be number one, and if they are incapable of handling complicated tasks, like corporate negotiations, then they should hire someone who is and be quiet while the grown-ups talk.
I hope you can see the common sense in that.
PX
**I had to edit this in there to highlight my point. Just look at BusyB, one of our esteemed GC members of yore. Check out his posts, always one or two lines of catty retorts to people wanting change. He doesn't seem to have two brain cells to rub together and says nothing constructive. He embodies the juvenile performance of the broken AOA. Nothing will change with idiots like that on the GC.**
