Retribution

[Colonel]

When powerful people don't like when you tell the truth:

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/tri ... ty-report/

Tribunal Rules Delta ‘Retaliated’ Against Pilot For Safety Report

A Labor Department tribunal has awarded a Delta pilot $500,000 in a whistleblower case after determining the airline “weaponized” a bogus psychological assessment that grounded her for two years. Speaking for the panel, Administrative Law Judge Scott Morris further determined that the trip to the psychiatrist was retaliation for Karlene Pettit’s drafting a 43-page report detailing alleged safety issues at the airline, and its safety culture. Petitt has a doctorate in aviation safety. The psychiatrist retained by Delta determined that Petitt was bipolar and therefore disqualified from flying. Two subsequent examinations repudiated those findings and were critical of the original psychiatrist, who subsequently lost his license to practice for his involvement in another case that resulted in another pilot disqualification. Delta had already reported the diagnosis to the FAA medical section before the two later examinations were conducted.

In his decision, Morris determined that Petitt had proven that the use of Delta’s so-called “Section 15” was the culmination of a plot among high-level Delta executives to retaliate against the 40-year veteran pilot for bringing up the alleged safety issues.

“However, it is improper for Respondent to weaponize this process for the purposes of obtaining blind compliance by its pilots due to fear that Respondent can ruin their career by such cavalier use of this tool of last resort.” In an unusual move, Morris also ordered the airline to publish the judgment where its pilots could see it to educate them on the value and importance of whistleblower protection in assuring that important issues of public interest can be raised.

Among those deposed for the hearing was FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, who was Delta’s VP of Flight Operations at the time. An FAA spokesman told AVweb Dickson met once with Petitt when she presented her report to him and chief pilot Jim Graham.

Those are powerful people you just don't fuck with. They are ruthless and will destroy you.

[vanNostrum]

She got $ 500.000 in compensatory damages
Peanuts for Delta
Where was her union in all of this?

[Colonel]

I don't think Bob Hoover ever got compensated for his loss of medical
for the bogus "Cognitive Dissonance" diagnosis, which magically went
into remission when the US Senate asked the FAA to produce documentation.

That was a goddamned modern medical miracle.

[Liquid_Charlie]

Where was her union in all of this?

Interesting enough (and I will check with my contacts) I was an MEC chair at ALPA and Delta is an ALPA member and yes the FAA head cheese was once a Delta member. I can remember the hype around his appointment and how good that was going to be for the grunts in the air and airlines in general.

You need to understand that something like this is outside the mandate of the collective agreement and if the company, it happens all the time, applies the rules of the current collective agreement, even if it's wrong or bad language, these are the rules. These issues can only be addressed in negotiations and even then might not get corrected if other issues are more important. Grievances have to follow the rules.

Unions and companies have to play by the rules as negotiated and no one is going to open a contract for such a minor issue and only one pilot being effected. This might have been supported by the union unofficially and the hope for the outcome she got would allow them to address the issue during next contract.

She got shit money and likely didn't even offset her loss of income and expenses. Unions just do not get involved in civil suits. Did she get her job back or have it offered to her. All stuff needed to know. Reading the article it seems that going back to Delta was not being considered. I'm sure this was just "putting it to the man" with no worries about a career with Delta. I wonder when next negotiations will be. This is small potatoes compared to what wage demands and roll backs. The wage roll backs from the last trough have just been caught up and now we have this. The cycle rolls on !! A big reset from a large rogue wave. The guys in the zoote suits and epaulettes are going to have a hard major reality check. Freight dogs are the covid winners.

[vanNostrum]

The way Delta dealt with her, based on just one report from
the company's hired gun,a discredited psychiatrist
who lost his licence, IMHO is enough to get union representation
I know nothing about ALPA or what they did or didn't do for her
In my experience with unions, I never saw any real effort to
provide fair representation , in general most
grievances brought up by members where treated as inconveniences
Maybe there is a reason why she is suing ALPA

[Liquid_Charlie]

Like most issues like this there is much more going on than reported. I'm intrigued now. I will try and get the whole story if I can. ALPA has had "internal" lawsuits in the past costing millions. It's the American way

[Colonel]

Will the FAA attempt to revoke her citizenship as well, now that's she's embarrassed the
Administrator, or is that just a Canadian thing?

I know everyone hates Trump, but if I were him, I would call the FAA Administrator to
the White House and ask him

1) if he was in on it, or
2) if he was the most incompetent VP in the history of Delta and had no idea what was going on

If the answer is (1), he is immoral and unethical and must resign.
If the answer is (2), he is incompetent and must resign.

There are no other answers.

[JW Scud]

I know I am considered by many in the world to be a racist, sexist, bigot but I have to say that my immediate first instinct was that she is the problem. Just based on my interpretation of stories in life.

I could be wrong of course. So I did look a little further and found this. It may not validate my instincts but it would be very interesting to know more. The are no shortage of disturbers in all industries.

"Quote:
Originally Posted by sailingfun View Post
One of the safety issues she had was positive space to work not being considered DH and appropriate FAR’s applied.
This was certainly the biggest issue she had with DL management. She was upset that positive space deviate deadheads did not count towards duty periods. Quite the slippery slope especially given our current positive space to work provision. Would you like the company or FAA considering your pos space to work part of your duty day? This would frequently necessitate commuting a day early even with the space positive benefit. We have discussed this before on APC and we really don’t want the FAA messing with this issue. But she’s the camel sticking her nose under the tent.

I read pretty much all the transcripts. Probably 20 hours of reading. While the company certainly made some big mistakes and certainly was at fault in some regards, Karlene is no saint. Many of her causes serve her but hurt the pilot group as a whole. If you would like further insight into her beliefs, read one of her books. Doing so is quite eye-opening. And then there is her address at the MEC meeting roughly 2 years ago. Talk about bizarro land.


Great post, very accurate to what I’ve picked up on from my readings as well.

Point blank, she’s a narcissist (narcissistic personality disorder). The type of person who would say anyone with less than a 3.5 GPA shouldn’t be considered at delta, while she happens to have a 3.6, then at the same time make an argument for traffic violations being irrelevant to safety because she has 5. Her writings always seem to fit to her convenience, sad really.

Also her writings are nothing but cherry picking to make her case.

Also DL management handled this poorly.

Can't people just do their job and make safety complaints about real safety issues. They apply for a job and say all the right things, then you discover the reality. Maybe marriage is similar.

[Colonel]

she is the problem

Respectfully, I think you're missing the point.

She could be a saint. She could be a demon. It doesn't matter, at this point.

What matters is that Delta management - now the FAA administration - acted
reprehensibly, by using their pet shrink to make a bogus diagnosis and have an
employee's medical revoked.

Ever heard the saying, "The cure is worse than the disease!". Well, that's the
case here.

Listen, she could show up with a pointed tail, cloved hoofs, a trident, wearing
a red onesie with severe halitosis, and it just wouldn't matter.

What matters is how Delta - now the FAA - handed the situation. Criminally,
in my estimation.

I know the FAA didn't like Bob Hoover, either, but that didn't justify their bullshit
diagnosis of cognitive dissonance, did it?

This isn't about her, at least not any more. That FAA Administrator has to go.

This is not hard to understand.