ALPA "Horseshit at it's best" The ballad of Corey Ferguson, Son of SCAB, and a corporate SVP's son now labor representative
John F. Barton Jr.
Widebody Captain at Major International Airline (retired nov 2022) / Political Labor Activist #JohnBarton-F16
I couldn't help but put this up as an article for all ALPA line pilots to read as it presents to you a line pilots view first, Captain Oly Olson, and then the ALPA C57 message put out by a management tool Captain Jerome Mestman. To be fair, I want to quantify honestly what you are reading so that you can put it into perspective because it needs clarification.
Captain Oly Olson is a "unionist", and believes in the power of numbers against the managements that rule over labor. In aviation, it is important to understand that labor fighting management goes into safety, where the public may find themselves in danger due to management's decision to cut corners - ValueJet accident as an example.
With regard to contracts, pilots are underpaid. Passengers do not realize how dangerous flying can be, and they have no idea how much stress pilots may be under to secure safety through being compensated correctly, and ensuring the profession is protected in America as we are the guardians of safety across the globe.
The first piece you'll read below is from Captain Oly Olson criticizing the article below his where a pilot defends a substandard contact offer from United Airlines. His name is Jerome Mestman, a failed management office clerk, who then infiltrated the union as a communications Chairman for Council 57 in Los Angeles for United Airlines ALPA.
I am intimately familiar with this douchebag - pardon, I have no other term to refer him as -because he initiated a "recall" on me in 2018. I do not even give him credit for this, because he was a puppet for a "scab wannabe", Captain Corey Ferguson. We all know a Corey Ferguson - they are the Christian we all see in church, who is righteous and good, and has the best interest for people around us ... except, there is that sleazy nature about them that a real Christian (one of love) can see through ... Corey is like Doug Niedermeyer from Animal House.
In 2018, I was in a bitter battle with my Master Chairman (Todd Insler) at United Airlines over his zest to give away more RJ's to management to get a mere thirty pieces of silver. His tool to get me out of office was none other than Corey Ferguson, a Captain at United who had a soft heart for SCABS and whatever he "Himself" could garner for "Himself" at the expense of those below him in seniority. Corey wanted a retirement to replace what was lost in the United Airlines 2003 bankruptcy, but that was never going to happen.
He ran a recall on myself in the union, despite my telling him personally what was going on, and he used none other that Jerome Mestman to put the recall motion in play. what is important to understand is no one had the balls to do it, so they got a United management tool to do it. It stunned me that his name was on the resolution, and NO OTHER! Corey didn't even have the nuts to do it.
My supporters kept me on track and the only message I could put out was the truth, that Captain Insler was going to give away more outsourcing to the company. Corey formulated a lie to the pilots with Mestman and others that I was holding up negotiations, and that if I was recalled, the path would be cleared for a contract by the end of 2018 with a retirement offer from United Airlines. I don't have to explain we do not have a contract as of 2022 today, and further the piece of shit tentative agreement laid in front of the United pilots which they are turning down as we speak, does not have any retirement provisions in it at all. Oh, I did get recalled by about a %, and I am still proud of the fact I stopped more RJ's from being given away for over 4 years. The current TA though before the United pilots has provisions to give away more RJ's.
What is really crazy is during the recall, I was contacted by close friends of Corey, and they relayed that during the 1985 strike at United Airlines, they were working at the same FBO as Corey, who was a furloughed pilot from United since 1978-79. They told me that Corey when asked by people at work what the whole strike thing was about and how would it affect him, his quote was -
And that says it all - "it's all about me!" Jerome Mestman may be worse than Corey, which I find hard to believe I could say when SCAB or SCAB wannabe is in the conversation, but it is amazing how ALPA has been so infected with these corporate sympathizers or management stooges, for over 40 years, willing to hurt this profession dismantling the safety and security to our global passengers. It's disgusting at best.
C57 in the aftermath of my demise, elected the son of a SCAB - Scott Combest - his name is at the bottom of the letter Jerome put out, along with Brian Findley - who lied to furloughed United pilots that they would be taken care of in the Integrated Seniority List of the merger between Continental and United - and lastly Jim Bowers, who doesn't even go by his first name (Chris) because he is the son of a former SVP for United Airlines, and who stuck the knife into my side exactly like Brutus to Julius Caesar "E tu Brute".
If you've never been through a recall or resigned because you simply cannot stand the insanity, or better said "stupidity" of the people around you - then, you've never served! More importantly, you never stood up for the profession!
I'm running for ALPA President because we need to DRAIN THE SWAMP, and get serious about protecting the public from a safety and security aspect. It's that simple.
Captain John Barton
Below:
NOTE: C57, C34, C5, C33, C171 are all under RECALL action at this time
First - Captain Oly Olson commentary on the stupidity of Captain Jerome Mestman's letter to C57 trying to convince them to VOTE YES on this current TA at United Airlines (that every other carrier in this union are laughing at as the worst TA ever in existence)
Second - Captain Jerome Mestman commentary to vote for this contract.
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FIRST:
C57 Officers:
Mestman the bad historian here starts his "just take the crumbs when they’re on the table" screed using a completely off base historical analogy. With mainland USA completely immune to attack from Axis powers in WWII the outcome of that struggle very much WAS a foregone conclusion the moment the USA entered the fight. Admiral Yamamoto knew it and famously told anyone who would listen as much. But looking at the name calling here (and in C34s rant), perhaps the best quote comes from another Axis leader who knew they were doomed after biting off more than they could chew. "Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice which usually indicates a man who has shortcomings of his own to hide." - Irwin Rommel
Calling the opposing view and perhaps a large percentage of your own council “narcissists” and other names is George Hise BS Scott.?I thought you were better than that.?All you have to do to win any day is stick to the facts and the data.?Mestman doesn’t do that.?He starts off with a BS “fact” and then fills out his name-calling screed with his set of assumptions, some 20/20 hindsight, and cloudy crystal ball predictions of what could maybe possibly have happened. This isn’t “bird in the hand vs. one in the bush” common sense wisdom, it’s more like “bird we got vs. the hypothetical bird we may have found in the bush.”?If I were British I’d say, “Bad show.”
?Had we NOT done that extension in 2015 we would not be in the current position we are with not having had pay raises for years while working on a stale contract from 2012 that needs major improvements.?Hey look at that, I can make cloudy crystal ball predictions too!??
This is what your predecessor who Mestman worked so hard to oust had to say in Dec. 2015.?Perhaps you’ll send this out to the council again.?Ha!?I slay me.
If we’re going to invoke the past, allow me to do so.?In the mid-2000s a Council 57 officer called me to ask that I support a T/A that was before the pilots.?I said that I could not do so because while it had some good things it also contained some concessions.?He said, “But Oly it’s such a good deal.?It’s like them giving you ten dollars and you handing back two.”?I replied, “Then just hand me eight dollars. Or five, or whatever but you don’t get anything from me.?We already gave too much.”
?One thing I can say is for sure using?my?28 years of 20/20 hindsight when it comes to ALPA and the UAL MEC:?SOSDD.
?VR,
Capt. Oly Olson, 787 LAXFO Former C57 FO Rep./Vice Chairman, C57 SO Rep./Secretary-Treasurer, C57 Communications Chairman, UAL MEC Communications and RJ/Scope committees
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领英推荐
SECOND:
HERE BEGINS THE BULLSHIT OF ALL BULLSHIT ON PLANET EARTH
COUNCIL 57 UPDATE ON PILOT NEGOTIATIONS Subject:?C-57 LEC Update - August 14, 2022
August 14, 2022 Council 57 LEC Update MEC Special Meeting Historical Perspective:?How To Learn From Past Pattern Bargaining Success
Brothers and Sisters of Council 57,
?MEC Special Meeting
?Tomorrow, the MEC will be meeting in special session in order to review the polling and survey results gathered over the last few weeks.?Once those results are analyzed and discussed, the MEC will adjust the priorities for continued negotiations with the company.
Many members have asked whether the details of the random poll or the on-line survey will be made public.?This will never happen!?As much as everyone would like to know, results of polling data have always been closely held by the MEC.?The reason is simple: That data was gathered on behalf of the MEC --?your elected representatives?-- so that they can direct future negotiations based on your expectations.?Releasing --?or leaking-- that data only serves to give the Company added insight into the mood and expectations of the pilots.?Think of a poker game where your opponent can see your cards...?It wouldn't be much of a negotiation if the other side knows everything you know!
Historical Perspective
Below you will find a perspective from Captain Jerome Mestman, a long-time member of Council 57 and the LEC Communications Chair from 2012 to 2015, who served during the Contract Extension negotiation in 2015.?We believe his comments provide a good review of the negotiating climate during that time, and can provide an important perspective for the environment we find ourselves in today.?We appreciate him taking the time.
How to Learn from Past Pattern Bargaining Success
By Captain Jerome Mestman, Council 57
As we ponder the travails of our current contract situation, I can't help but think back to 2015 and how much today resembles that period, at least in terms of pattern bargaining.?We tend to look back at the contractual gains we've made since 2012 with a sense of inevitability, much the same way we look back as if victory in WW2 was inevitable, but nothing was a foregone conclusion at the time.?I think the events in airline labor relations in 2015-2016 can provide a great tutorial as to the benefits of effective pattern bargaining.?
Pattern bargaining, the game of contractual leap frog, is most effective when all parties are lifting up together, each only requiring little strength to lift a heavy object. Pattern bargaining fails when people expect one party to do the heavy lifting all alone. Effective pattern bargaining means no single union needs to be the "tough guy."
Some may look back at the Contract Extension of 2015 as a foregone conclusion with a great outcome, but it was hardly a sure thing.?When put out for membership ratification, the extension passed with a 79 percent approval, but few pilots realize that the Extension TA barely made it out of the MEC by a vote of 11 to 8.?Yep, with a two vote swing the pilots would never have a chance to vote on what ended up being arguably the greatest wealth transfer to the pilots in the last 30 years, or longer!??
While Contract 2000 and Contract 2012 had larger increases, both of those contracts followed two significant concessionary pay structures:?Respectively, the Employee Stock Ownership Plan of the 1990s and the bankruptcies of both legacy United and legacy Continental.?The pay increases negotiated in 2015 were a pure gain on the Contract 2012 pay scale.
To illustrate the gains realized in the 2015 Contract Extension:?In the Fall of 2015, a 12-year United 737 captain earned $212 per hour.?By January 2019, just three and a half years later, that same United captain was earning $282 per hour.?By comparison, the Consumer Price Index jumped 7.5 percent during those three years while pilot wages grew by 7.5 percent each year!?In other words:?While overall prices increased 7.5 percent, pilot wages increased 33.3 percent!
(For those arguing today that our wages should be tied to inflation simply because we've have one year of relatively high inflation, I suggest they look at more data than one single bad year!)
How Did We Achieve Such Wage Gains?
In the fall of 2015, Delta pilots were the next pilot group on the negotiating block. The good news for Delta pilots was that its airline was the most profitable airline in the industry.?If any labor group were going to extract contractual gains, it would be the labor group working for the most profitable airline,?right???The bad news was that the Delta pilots were already the highest paid commercial pilots in the industry; there was no one with whom to play contractual leap frog.?Delta management could easily have offered its pilots annual wage increases of 2 percent (actually beating the inflation rate).?If the pilots would have voted it down, management could have turned to the National Mediation Board (NMB) and said:?We're offering our pilots the highest wages in the industry and they still reject it!?We don't know what they want!??At that point, the NMB could have turned to the Delta MEC and ask:?Well... ?
Under the Railway Labor Act, management has a significant advantage in that labor contracts don't expire outright, they merely become?amendable.?Workers can't withhold services at the amendable date; the parties must first be released for self-help by the NMB before workers can strike.?In 2015, had the United pilots turned down the contract extension (many pilots argued for the gains and glory of a full Section 6 negotiation), it could have resulted in the traditional stalemate with us working through 2019 under a pay scale that topped out in 2017.?($224 per hour for the 737 captain above).?The result:?Had either the UAL or DAL pilots tried to do the heavy lifting alone, pilot wages could have stagnated for years.?
But, that's not what happened!
When the 2015 Contract Extension was approved, many pilots grumbled that the snap-up clause meant the United pilots were riding the coattails of those tough Delta pilots who were actually doing the hard work.?The key aspect of the 2015 Extension was that the United pilots raised the wage bar --?substantially?-- for the Delta pilots to jump over in the leap frog game.?There was little chance Delta was going to offer its pilots the wages it did had United not spiked the punchbowl with the?additional 13 percent pay raise?in the Extension.?Once Delta shot above our wage levels, we simply snapped up to the new Delta pay rates.
In a classic success of pattern bargaining, both labor groups did some moderate lifting where both made significant gains due to the efforts of the other group.?The end result:?Wages for both the DAL and UAL pilots kept moving; there was no 3-year dead zone of zero wage growth.
2022 vs 2015
I think 2022 is eerily similar to 2015 in that the United and Delta pilots are leading the industry in overall contract value.?If we each work independently, trying to do the heavy lifting alone (i.e., push for annual wage increases of 10 percent), we could easily end up in stalled negotiations with zero wage gains for years.?Remember, it's called a negotiation and not a "demand" for a reason.?Just because pilots want something at the negotiating table doesn't mean the company has to give in - it can easily drag things out for 2 to 3 years.?So, when I hear "populist" grandstanding as some voices talk tough as if they can unilaterally force the company to back up a dump truck full of cash for us to gorge on, it gives me pause.?The glory of hitting a grand slam in Game 7 of the World Series may seem appealing, but we all know the likelihood of that actually happening.?Hitting five doubles in a row in Game 5 may not get the same headlines, but it scores just as many runs and is as effective at achieving the overall goal.
When it comes to the current negotiation, I'm more concerned about winning... however boring it may appear.?I'm very, very wary of so-called leaders who promise us glory based on nothing more than empty rhetoric that reflects their own egomania and thirst for power.?These narcissists have failed us before; just ask a United pilot who was around during the first two years of the merger, 2010-2012.?These populists can bask in their own narcissistic glory on their own dime.?You and I would be the ones left holding the bag for their failures.
I'll take boring and successful pattern bargaining over the risk of going?super nova?any day of the week!
Again, we thank Captain Mestman for taking the time to write.
If there are any questions or comments, please contact us or?file a PDR!
In unity,
Scott, Brian and Jim