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Barack Obama is a master at grabbing and keeping his audience's attention, which is the number one goal of any public speaker. How does he do it? Here are five key lessons from Obama's rhetorical playbook.
We’re finally at the point where Time Warner (TWX) is going to spin off AOL, which was originally the acquired in one of the most ill-conceived merger deals of all time. And now what happens? Comcast (CMSA) decides that it isn’t satisfied with creating a trend of increasing share prices. No, it sees a vacuum [...]
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter give you the chance to make priceless career-enhancing contacts. They also give you the chance to sabotage yourself in a big way. You’ll want to avoid that.
The FAA Reauthorization Bill May be Put Off for Another Three Months, According to Congressional Quarterly
With a deadline approaching for reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, lawmakers in both chambers are beginning to plan another short-term extension for the agency accordingly to a Congressional Quarterly article this week. The current short-term authorization expires Dec. 31.
Though aides said they still hope the Senate Finance Committee might find time this year to act on its piece of a multi-year reauthorization, it seems increasingly unlikely as the Senate focuses on health care legislation. House and Senate aides said the most likely course would be a three-month extension for the agency through the end of March. The House will likely take the lead on an extension. Jim Berard, spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said nothing has been drafted yet, but acknowledged the tight schedule. “I think we have to be prepared with some kind of extension, and three months is probably the most likely candidate at this point,” he said. “Unless the Senate suddenly kicks into hyperdrive.”.
The Teamsters have lobbied among other things for language in the House and Senate versions of the FAA bill having to do with putting maintenance outsourcing rules for MRO’s in foreign countries on a more equal footing with domestic maintenance rules.
NMB to Hear Testimony Next Monday on Its Proposed Changes to Election Rules
A National Mediation Board proposal, which was announced November 3, would base the outcome of union elections in the airline and rail industries on the majority approval of people who vote. This is the same method used under the National Labor Relations Act and in political elections nationwide. The current union-election system, which has been in place since 1934, bases the outcome of airline and rail union elections on the majority approval of an entire workgroup and counts those who do not participate in the election as voting against union representation.
This means that workers who do not vote because they never received balloting instructions, have religious objections, forget to vote, are apathetic or make a deliberate choice not to vote, have their votes counted as a vote against unionization. This creates an unfair unequal playing field for workers who want to form a union under the Railway Labor Act. Many commentators have also noted that the unfair voting rules violate airline workers’ freedom of association.
The NMB has established a 60-day comment period on the proposal. On this coming Monday the NMB has provided an opportunity for oral testimony on the proposal. A long list of invited speakers on both sides of the fence will have an opportunity to challenge or praise the NMB’s proposal at NMB headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Dates Set for a New Representation Election for Cape Air Pilots
The NMB has established next Monday as the date ballots will be mailed out for a new (rerun) representation election. After an investigation, the previous election was ruled invalid by the NMB. Ballots will be counted at NMB headquarters in Washington on January 5, 2010.
Omni Air International Contract Negotiation Moving Forward
NMB mediated negotiations continued in Houston, Texas in late November with a Tentative Agreement reached on another section of what will be the first Collective Bargaining Agreement for the flight crewmembers of Omni Air International. Significant progress was made on two other sections, Sick Leave and Vacations, and they would be complete but for accrual amounts that could not be agreed upon. This brings the status of negotiations between the Company and the Union to ten tentative agreements. Local 747 Executive Council negotiators Clark Cameron, Charlie Wallace and Walt Reulbach participated on behalf of the Omni crewmembers. They were joined by Teamsters Local 747 Business Agent John Herron and Jennifer Petty. An aggressive negotiating schedule and topic agenda has been set, with negotiating sessions planned for December 15-17, January 20-22, March 2-4, and March 30 &31.
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) Activities
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) has been very busy in Washington, DC addressing the numerous bills that have been written to address pilot professionalism in the cockpit. These bills have been written as a reaction to the Northwest Airlines flight that overflew MSP and was out of radio contact for over 90 minutes.
Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Dorgan (D-ND) has offered a bill that would "prohibit the use of personal wireless communications devices and laptop computers by the flight crew of commercial aircraft on the flight deck of such aircraft during aircraft operations." Senator Menendez (D-NJ) offered language that would "require the Administrator of Federal Aviation to promulgate regulations to prohibit the in-flight use of certain portable electronic devices in the cockpit of commercial aircraft and to conduct study of the safety impact of distracted pilots." Congresswoman McCarthy (D-NY) offered a bill that would "implement recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board regarding the installation of cockpit image recording systems in the cockpits of commercial aircraft" for "purposes directly related to investigations of accidents and incidents by the NTSB" as well as place restrictions on the use of laptop computers and portable electronic devices in the cockpit.
All three of these bills would still allow exceptions when "use of the laptop computer or personal electronic device is directly associated with command of the aircraft" so CAPA is not going overboard in its efforts to address these bills but we are closely monitoring their status in case something changes that we need to address. In our numerous meetings with House and Senate staffers to discuss these bills and the MSP overfly event the topic of "how could this have happened for 90 minutes" came up every time. CAPA representatives managed to turn the conversation to the need for comfortable, fatigue-reducing noise-cancelling communication headsets and intercoms that would increase attention to radio communication with ATC. Southwest Airlines has recognized the value in the use of these headsets and has begun to provide them to all SWAPA pilots and expanding their use to all commercial aviation cockpits would increase safety and decrease missed or misunderstood radio communication.
There is one bill that has caused concern at CAPA, and that is Senator Jim DeMint's (R-SC) Pilot Professionalism Assurance Act which proposes to "improve air safety by authorizing the limited use by air carriers of information collected through cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders" to "discipline or discharge a pilot or flight engineer for actions that endanger the safety or well being of passengers." If you ever doubted that pilots need to have a constant presence in Washington, DC to monitor Congress then you should no longer have doubt. Fortunately CAPA representatives, including CAPA lobbyists Jim and Jack Albertine and SWAPA Lobbyist Jay Keese have been canvassing Congress to address this intrusive and unnecessary bill and will do everything possible to make sure this bill is defeated. Our initial assessment is that the DeMint Pilot Professionalism Assurance Act is not widely supported on Capitol Hill or by industry. CAPA will be on top of this issue and will keep its members informed of its status.
House Subcommittee Hears Teamster Testimony on Security at Overseas Repair Stations
Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection heard testimony on November 18 from the Teamsters Union about security at overseas repair stations. In both written and oral testimony, the Teamsters Union said there should be a single security standard for aircraft repair stations in the U.S. and overseas. Chris Moore, a Teamster airline mechanic and chair of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition, testified that he had witnessed lax security at the Aeroman facility