"I don't want one cent of our dues money to be spent trying to win the un-winnable war of public perception of my salary. I would rather quietly prepare for the future...saving money and getting ready for the real battles ahead."  Lee Moak Supporter.


So this war would be un-winnable and costly?  I used to think that way as well.  That has been conventional thinking for my whole career.  As Vice Chair of Communication under Captain Moak, I said this many, many times and heard it repeated by others often.

But consider this:

Traditional media is a dying industry.  Newspapers will eventually not print newsprint (most young people never read them, many of the rest of us get our news on-line).  TV has been fractured from 3 networks to hundreds.  At the same time electrons have essentially become free (or nearly so).  It costs nothing to post Press Releases, stories on websites, blogs, etc.

Now I would agree that most of the time, people do not seek out pilot pay stories.  Generally they don't care about pay, they care about cheap tickets. 

But there are spikes in interest.  When Sully Sullenberger crash landed in the Hudson and then testified in front of Congress, there was a weeks worth of stories on pilot pay and retirement.  There was lots of free coverage on pilot pay.  It was great coverage for us.  Maybe that lead to these other stories like this (more free publicity). 

We never know when interest in pilot pay and retirement will occur.  Interest is dependent on breaking stories related to airlines.  That is just one reason why we need continual press releases or website stories about pay.  Look at what is out there now.  If a hot story broke and a reporter did a Google Search for background information here is what they would find:

• "Pilot Pay" - a real mix of stuff with Airline Pilot Central at the top
• "Pilot Pay + Delta Air Lines" - The top link is "Will Fly for Food" a pilot job information site.  #2 is the Delta Pilots Website (yeah) but it is the old one and is worthless (boo); There is not one story on page 1 about the travesty of our pay cuts.  Our union is failing when it comes to being internet savvy.
• Our hero, "Sully + Pilot Pay" - Great stuff, we should be so lucky.

There is another reason to be more public.  It involves one of my personal interests, organizational psychology.  We live and die with pilot unity.  Right now, we are asleep, apathetic and beaten down.  Two issues (pay and scope) are like gaping wounds that won't heal.  Addressing them publicly is letting pilots (the members who pay dues) know that the union is painfully aware, it is always thinking about, and will use every opportunity to regain losses of pay and retirement.  Publicly reminding management from time to time is an act of good mental health.  It will keep us together and focused. 

Sadly when I worked for Lee, the MEC Administration did all it could to keep pilots from getting worked up.  It was a conscious decision, one I am sure management loves.  The times they were most responsive was when we perceived a wrong and rung their phones off the hook and posted ad-infinitum on the Forum.  Our union is only truly responsive when we force them to be.