Fellow Council 135 Pilots,

I am writing you today to apologize for my failure to adequately represent 
you at the MEC meetings this week in Charlotte, and to tender my immediate 
resignation as your First Officer Representative. 

The Special MEC meeting called for this week caught your LEC a bit short 
handed because outgoing LEC Chairman Bob Nolan is in training, and our new 
Chairman, Ray Belz, does not take office until next month. As a result, John 
Stevens and I, (with a flu bug), attended the meetings. I carried Bob Nolan's 
proxy. Ray, changed his vacation plans to accommodate attending the beginning 
of meetings, and I thank him for that.

I mention my flu bug only because I was too ill to stay in the meeting on 
Thursday afternoon, and I left John Stevens with my proxy. This situation 
left your council with only 2 votes, because Bob Nolan's proxy was not 
transferable. (John evidently did not understand that, and that was my 
fault.) Quite frankly, I didn't see my absence as a problem because the 
ongoing, important MEC discussions merely centered around continued personal 
attacks against negotiating committee members (sound familiar?). Plus, since 
this MEC uses a roll call vote to decide everything now days, our senatorial 
vote means very little. Unfortunately, certain MEC members used my absence as 
an opportunity to trap John, and attack him when he unintentionally violated 
proxy procedures while trying to represent you. John did nothing purposefully 
wrong, other than lacking a good appreciation of the real motivations of some 
of the MEC members. 

John and I attended all other sessions through this morning, with the MEC in 
Plenary, ostensibly making decisions on issues already vigorously debated in 
sub-committee. Unfortunately, the MEC couldn't get past the first agenda 
item because Captain Davis changed the resolution (revised and agreed upon in 
sub-committee) back to it's original format. After a couple hours of debate, 
we had made no progress. At that point I told John Stevens to go home and 
attend to personal commitments, and I would hold his proxy. This was 
reasonable because the "Special Meeting" was not scheduled to last much 
longer, and all remaining items had already been debated in sub-committee. 

Unbelievably to me, the meeting then got even more bizarre. Instead of 
debating the issues before us, MEC members began arguing and engaging in what 
I can only characterize as juvenile behavior unacceptable at the elementary 
school level. This childishness continued for over an hour with no end in 
sight. I would not participate in, nor could I stand to be associated with 
this kind of behavior at what is supposedly a professional meeting. I 
gathered my belongings and left in total disgust.

I did not leave a proxy to represent you in the meeting. I was wrong to do 
that, and I apologize.

As I waited in the lobby for the hotel van to take me to the airport, Captain 
Davis approached me and we exchanged words. I am ashamed to say that I 
lowered myself to his level, and used words even he could understand. When 
Captain Davis accused me of not being there to vote for you, (my pilots), I 
tossed my silver ALPA wings to him and said, "Here John, you can represent 
everyone". I walked out as he was ranting and raving about me throwing my 
ALPA wings on the floor.

Fellow Pilots, I was ashamed and embarrassed to be a representative in that 
meeting this morning. I cannot and will not ever again be associated with a 
mockery of representation the likes of which I witnessed today in Charlotte. 

Burt Amos