Get Your Twenty – Save Your Career

 

Do You Have Your Twenty?

We have completed the first phase of getting the word out. The next thing we need to do is for each person who reads this to recruit twenty pilots into the cause.

Twenty, each.

That is all we need. It is not that hard.

If we each get twenty pilots to agree to the concepts of OPERATION ORANGE, we will have more than enough to create a catastrophic shutdown during the nationwide Suspension of Service/Protest. Our FACEBOOK “likes,” alone, multiplied by twenty is enough to carryout the scenario outlined in the “BASIC STRATEGY” document we posted several months ago. We know that our following is much larger than what FACEBOOK shows, as the demographic of FACEBOOK does not share significant overlap with the 38-55 year old male demographic.

How long would it take to “get your twenty?” If you recruited ONE pilot per workday, starting today, you would hit your twenty by mid-November. If we all did it, we would have anywhere between 1/6th and 1/4th of the pilots involved, which is more than enough to make good on shutting down the air transportation system during our protest/petition.

That is 1/6th to 1/4th of us with some form of recognizable orange on their luggage or book bags. Orange duct tape, Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Flyers, Syracuse, U of Tennessee, Oregon State, Miami Dolphins, San Francisco Giants, OPERATION ORANGE SOS stickers, orange lanyards, etc… If there is a time of year to buy orange decals and adornments, it is October.

With that kind of participation, the FAIR TREATMENT OF EXPERIENCED PILOTS ACT – PART 2 will hit Congress with authority. They get to decide if they want to fix the industry, or let it continue to deteriorate. They get to decide if they are going to listen to our labor or the ATA’s money. They will finally hear us in a manner they cannot ignore.

It has come to this.

How much money did the ATA members spend on getting the new flight time and fatigue abatement regulations changed in their favor? Congress listened. How much money was spent to water down the 1500 hour requirement, which was supposed to reduce the likelihood of another Colgan Air crash?

They do not listen to us because we do not stuff their pockets with money. They will listen to us if we cause the air transportation system to seize up.

A union cannot call for an unauthorized job action against a particular carrier for the purposes of changing an existing contract. There is no law against protesting against an existing law. There is no law against voicing an opinion for a desired political outcome. There is no law that requires private sector employees to be at work against their will.

The only way we fail is if we are divided. We need 1/6th to 1/4th of the pilots at the major airlines to participate. The more compliant pilots will join the effort when they see the initial skirmish break in our favor. Concentrate on pilots at Delta, United, Continental, American, and US Airways. First Officers and junior Captains will likely be the most receptive. Be certain to recruit pilots at other airlines. We need the “Big 5” airlines to make this work.

We have published hundreds of pages of talking points. We have two videos for you to send via YOUTUBE. We have published graphics for business cards and decals. What will it cost you? Decals are less than 40 cents each, and business cards are just pennies. Many online printers will send you 1000 cards for less than $30.

Talking points:

• OPERATION ORANGE is not an illegal job action under the RLA. It is a peaceful protest and petition for redress of the current government regulations, under the protection of the FIRST AMENDMENT.
• We seek to change the “perpetual contract” mechanism of the RLA.
• We seek to change the bankruptcy laws to limit the areas of pilot contracts judges can unilaterally change during bankruptcy proceedings.
• We seek to institute realistic and sane fatigue abatement measures, not the codified pilot pushing and legal eyewash being pushed by the ATA and FAA.
• We seek to give authorized collective bargaining agents the authority to properly deal with scab labor subsequent to a lawful labor dispute.
• We seek minimum duty rig and pay paradigms to prevent the wholesale outsourcing of safety and experience to shadow flight schools. These duty rig and pay paradigms would provide strong disincentive for management and government to engage in pilot pushing.
• We seek meaningful labor protective provisions that were not delivered, as promised, during the airline deregulation of the 1970s. Pilots who lose their job from reputable carriers, due to liquidation, furlough, or strike replacements would be given priority hiring by other reputable carriers.
• We seek to outlaw pilot pushing and retribution for contractual and regulatory compliance by requiring pilots so harmed to be paid triple actual damages, plus customary legal recovery costs.
• We seek to protect everyone involved in OPERATION ORANGE through legislated legal immunity and the outright prevention of harassment by management.
• We do not need everyone to participate. We only need enough pilots to ground the system. Management has an enormous tactical weakness by staffing the airlines for perfection. They have no ability to absorb any significant disruption.
• Our proposed legislation will make the air transportation system more economically viable and safer. All business need some form of barrier to entry, and pilot labor will be a major barrier in the new paradigm. Gone will be the days of the $18,000 per year pilot with 300 hours of experience, who is willing to work up to, and exceed the FARs.
• Now is the time. A very strong anti-labor government will be installed in January 2013. If not now, when?
• Traditional tactics yield traditional results. Judging by the past 30 years, we believe it is time for something unconventional. OPERATION ORANGE is exactly that. If this isn’t the way, what is?
• We need pilot unity across the industry, not just at a single airline. If a Delta pilot is trying to undercut a United pilot, and the United pilot is doing likewise, all that we know is both of them will destroy each other’s jobs and the industry as a whole. We have to take care of each other. We were brothers in the military and that has not changed, just because we fly airplanes with different paint schemes.
• This will force airlines to compete on customer service, rather than to the degree pilots must subsidize the operation.

Now is the time. Get your twenty. Orange stickers are not trivial. We need to see unity with orange. Do it and we will all build a better industry. We will fix the mistakes of the past three decades.

This is our time.