Layinlow : I'm sorry bud, I don't get it. I stood up for you and this is how you treat me? I do wear my battlestar; with pride.

Quit Laying Low. Get up and move on!

Atlas/Polar
 

The issue with Atlas, Polar, Management and ALPA is not a unique situation. It is a window into things to come… and ALPA National is doing its best to avoid stoppages in its major income sources.

Atlas and Polar are fairly small entities. If ALPA was a real corporation, these two problem children would be tax write-offs or even perhaps a charitable donation. But they represent more to ALPA as the major airlines become 2 or 3 mega-carriers. Atlas and Polar cannot ever be seen as a smooth merger attempt. They are the message sent to the mega-carriers that smooth mergers will never occur.

Atlas/Polar have an even heavier burden for ALPA- the Cato factor. Mr. Cato was considered for a higher position with a real airline as his management techniques, while quite unusual, were effective. Mass firings and brutal divisive tactics against a unified labor force, formed a pattern that ALPA did not want to face at their major sources. Now, with an incompetent merger process marred with delays, labor strife, and severe financial losses, Mr. Cato has been effectively “contained” at Atlas/Polar, FOREVER! (President Reagan’s prized tactic is extremely effective, but slow in results.) Keep this disciple of Frank Lorenzo and Carl Icahn in a position where he cannot harm the real airlines!

So, Atlas/Polar is the front line defense in the upcoming merger process where airlines will become like Walmart… U-mart Air, D-mart Air, and NW-mart Air, are all pervasive entities of the future. ALPA National would rather contain them now - Launch the drones!

Atlast
 

Excuse me, battle star ? Where and when did you walk ? We all eagerly wait your answer. If you earned it, now you throw it away for Teamsters ! You make us laugh in the industry.

Good question. I know it wasn't Miami. The only Atlas brother didn't walk but did refuse to cross the line. He was fired, then rehired and is a Captain.
Great guy too. The others, embarked and disembarked at the back of the building. Maybe they were walking there and we just didn't know it. The Miami Springs PD limited us to the front of the building. I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt.

Rob Rilly : Not only did I refuse to cross your virtual picket line at JFK Bldg 23 you guys got it all on video! AND when the Port Authority Police arrived and declared it a non legal picket line, I still refused even after the Police sent your video team packing. The Connie crew just went straight in to work but we supported you. I don't know what else short of physically bleeding you really want? MOVE ON, because the Industry is not laughing WITH you.

When and if we go to Teamsters I shall take the pin off and replace it with a Teamsters pin because that's what you do when you are in a professional union that the majority of your Brothers & Sisters have voted for. MOVE ON!

BB. BATTLE STAR PINS
SOURCE - Executive Board May 2000
A Master Executive Council, with approval of the Executive Council, may authorize those members who have engaged in a strike against management of that MEC's airline to wear ALPA "Battle Star" pins.
However, no MEC may retroactively authorize or rescind a “Battle Star” authorized by a previous MEC.

To take break from the usual BS here, I thought I would forward some stuff the Polar guys probably don't get from their MEC. We got it on the Atlas side when it was CC'd to the Atlas MEC.

Open Letter to Henderson from Cato in PDF. Mostly on a response to Mr. Henderson's VARS of 04-18-2008. Pretty long and detailed.

Oh, just got this one also.

Press Release of Atlas MEC Chairman Dave Bourne becoming Teamsters Airline Division Director.

Release 05-1-2008 in PDF

Memo form James P Hoffa on it
Memo in PDF

Over 200 Polar Guys got that e-mail, so are you special..... Get over yourself , Nitty!

Sorry to tell you this but, The Industry has LAUGHED at Atlas for a few years now. Since you signed that contract !

Dave's rushing the new frat...what won't he do or say to get what he wants? This will be costly.

Rob Rilly: You certainly come out with some inane stuff but,
is certainly an inane rejoinder.
I look around at other airmen's CBA's and some are good, some are bad, some parts are desirable BUT I would NEVER LAUGH at another professional pilot's CBA . To do so would be the very definition of UNPROFESSIONALISM.
As I said earlier, " the Industry is not laughing WITH you "

MOVE ON!

nitty-gritty : Thanks for putting out the information, good or bad, for all to see and make either informed comment upon or otherwise. :D

cptvac: So you're saying that the new Director of the Airline division of the IBT knowing your particular airline intimately is a bad thing? It will be costly how?

Quit dipping into the broth of inanity and contribute something. MOVE ON!

Dave MUST deliver the Atlas crewmembers to the Teamsters, otherwise he will not have his position for long. Conflict of interest? Dave will promise the world to Atlas crewmembers because of his new position.

The cost will be high to the Teamsters, to ALPA and Polar in the coming Single Carrier battle, and highest of all to the Atlas crewmembers who will make great sacrifices in their leap of faith to benefit a select few. Clear?

Polyp: There certainly is some bickering but also some healthy dialogue in between that hopefully will enable US to move on. That "Real" airline quote
however belongs in the broth of inanity. At the current time, your so called,
" Real " airlines are all bleeding billions of dollars. The cargo carriers are faring from a little to a lot better.

CptVac: Do you really think Dave's new position hinges solely upon Atlas crewmembers coming over? Do you not think it may have something to do with his ability to do the job?
Cost to Teamsters? What cost?
Cost to ALPA? They don't want us. Read their stated position on ACMI carriers.
Cost to Polar? What cost? We'll support you; we just won't be paying for you.
Cost to Atlas crewmembers? No cost, we're moving on!

After I stopped laughing I actually felt bad for the average Atlas crew member. Dave Bourne is a masterful politician to say the least. He has leveraged his pilot group into a new position for himself all the while selling the union members a promise. I know the people on the board are die hard Bourne fans, however, he really used you guys to gain a position for himself. It won't matter what the final vote is, he already demonstrated his capability for the teamsters. He will be there for awhile. What you have to ask yourself is what can he really do for you? There is only so much money allocated towards airlines at the teamsters, I was one at another airline. We never saw them or much money from them. I cannot wonder how the Atlas pilots will not feel used and betrayed. Good luck with the revolt.

Jocko 2000 : Dave has not led " the revolt ". There is no feeling of being used or of betrayal. I'm looking forward to the future; knowing the head of your union is a freightdog is a good thing. Prater & ALPA are anti-ACMI. Teamsters can not be worse. My last outfit was Teamsters and I look forward to the future. Even if " the revolt " is not successful, we are sending a message. WE'RE MOVING ON!

My apologies Atlast, I meant the revolt from the crew members who will have felt used. I appreciate the fact of moving on. I agree with you on that aspect. I agree with and have said it before about putting the strike behind us. Trust me, for all our sakes, I hope everything works out for you guys for we are intertwined. For any Polar or Atlas guy to wish ill will on the other is only self defeating. Who knows the Teamsters could be a good thing, but you have to admit that the timing on all this is a little fishy. Someone once told me a saying and I think it is probably correct, "Perception is reality". Watch what people perceive because that is going to be the reality they accept. All in all, good luck.

jocko2000 True dat!:ok:

Sir or Madam,
I meet you halfway, as i am in fact, no believer in coincidence either. However, about "Perception is reality". Remember that your perception is tainted by your judgement, which is changeable and that "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
Fancy ways of saying, "We'll see!"

REVOLTING and MOVING ON!

"I can’t believe all this bickering between the crews of these two freight carriers. I work for a “real” airline; one that carries passengers."

Chris, How dare you! and with your stock at $5.06 and ours at $62.00 :=

Nitty letter was from Cato. 'Nuff said