USAPA Vs AWAPPAOne thing U-Turn knows is that certain allegations in the charges are criminal. If they are true and can be proven who did them, a few pilots could be in trouble. Jamming a USPS sort machine and sending haz-mat (feces) through the mails isn’t a prank. The post office takes interfering with the mail and exposing its employees and the public to haz-mat very seriously. Anyone who thinks that investigating this kind of thing is too time-consuming for the USPS forgets that ALL of our fingerprints are on file at the TSA. U-Turn Nation: Thanks to all our new subscribers. We just topped 10,000 on our distribution list. We are trying to remain neutral in the East Vs West, so we want to make a few announcements. First we received a lot of emails to publish. In light of the lawsuit, even though we received expressed permission to publish the ones that we did, we don’t think it is a good idea to publish any more of them for a while. What lawsuit? From Le Ann Ottman’s bigjetcity website, we found the full text of the lawsuit filed by USAPA against the leadership of AWAPPA and as many as 100 West pilots. The lawsuit is over 50 pages long and it would have to go out in sections, taking us days to put it out. If you want to read it, go to bigjetcity. You can open the file at http://www.bigjetcity.com/ and scrolling half way down the front page. No log-in needed. Le Ann has no past or current relationship with AWA or USAir. This is the article: It Ain't Over Til It's OverPosted on Jun 04, 2008 Click on: USAPA Files for Injunctive Relief in Court Click OPEN and you can read the lawsuit. After you read it, if you are a West pilot and think you are a John Doe, you do have choices. You can get an attorney on your own or you can read below. Just ignoring this would be a mistake. We are not recommending any course of action, but you should know what is available. It means going to the USAPA Web Site. http://1.usairlinepilots.org/default2.htm Go to MEMBERS ONLY SECTION tab at the top of the page. Then follow the instructions: “If you have your username and password, click here to continue” Insert the log-in address below and the generic member pin. USER I/Log-in address: USAPA MEMBER PIN: MEMBER In a red box will be this: NOTE: USAPA has been advised that, while Jeffrey Freund of the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser will be representing AWAPPA and AWAPPA's directors in the current lawsuit, none of the other individual pilot defendants will receive representation from that firm. If any of these individual pilot defendants are interested in expeditiously resolving the pending claims against them, they (or their individual attorneys) should contact Lee Seham at Seham, Seham, Meltz and Petersen, http://www.ssmplaw.com, 914-997-1346 U-Turn will not comment on the legitimacy of the lawsuit. Until AWAPPA’s attorney Jeffrey Freund speaks, no one really knows where AWAPPA stands on paying attorney’s fees. U-Turn has no way to know the truth about whether Freund is only representing AWAPPA and its BOD or all charged pilots. The only way you can find out is to call or email Freund directly and hear it from him. Get what he says in writing. We did read that John McIlvenna is asking for donations to defend the John Does but so far he has not commented on who Freund will represent. In two very long blast emails from Captain McIlvenna, he avoids answering the obvious: will AWAPPA’s attorney and the AWAPPA bank roll protect charged pilots? U-Turn would like to know. One thing U-Turn knows is that certain allegations in the charges are criminal. If they are true and can be proven who did them, a few pilots could be in trouble. Jamming a USPS sort machine and sending haz-mat (feces) through the mails isn’t a prank. The post office takes interfering with the mail and exposing its employees and the public to haz-mat very seriously. Anyone who thinks that investigating this kind of thing is too time-consuming for the USPS forgets that ALL of our fingerprints are on file at the TSA. U-Turn does want to add one additional thought concerning this lawsuit. We believe in the right of free speech and the right to take whatever actions you choose. But along with rights come responsibilities. Before the election vote was over, there was a lot of fighting and scrapping on the ALPA Web Board about what each side could and should do to each other after results were in. There were a lot of boasts and idle threats. But it was confined mainly to the speech-protected forum of our former CBA, ALPA National. And since USAPA was not the CBA at the time, U-Turn does not believe that remarks made in the heat of ALPA Web Board spats should be cause for concern before the election results were known. U-Turn believes the ALPA Web Boards provided us all with additional protection regarding free speech. The Boards were also a place to vent. It was ALPA’s call on whether what we said was within limits. What we said prior to April 17th is old news. It should go away, be dead and buried along with our access to the ALPA Web Board. It was history and only ALPA should be held accountable for what they refused to remove. But we are no longer represented by ALPA. As U-Turn warned two months ago, taking out revenge can’t help any of us. What we write, what we say and what we do, can come back to haunt us. As we have said so many times before, U-Turn will remain neutral in this East V West debate. We believe our readership continues to increase because we are neutral. We will put out the facts as we see them and we will always err on the side of caution in what we write. We have no protection if we deliberately misstate the facts to the detriment of any person or group. In the few times in the past where we have made factual errors, we have printed retractions and apologies. We realize that while there definitely is “freedom OF speech,” there may not be “freedom AFTER speech.” In light of the above, we hope that USAPA will take account of and ignore what was written, what was said and how pilots behaved BEFORE April 17th. USAPA: you won the election. And in U-Turn’s humble opinion, we believe you should erase the slate on April 17th and start again. NEXT U-Turn:Comments on AWAPPA Update, Part 1 BigJetCity.com |
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