MARGINAL??? You give the backstabbing lazy SOB that much credit? PUH-LEASE. He was a useless lazy waste of a paycheck on the JFK ramp, even lazier at LGA (why do you think he he bought the house in MSP and stayed there?), and his kid only narrowly missed finding his lazy useless hide stuffed in the aft bin of a 9 and sipped out to daddy by inches. This is someone who would only defend members who supported him in his quest for power. As Dictator for 143 he never did anything for anyone who wasn't "on his team". Any of us who supported Kip's slate in 2002 were promptly F*ck by Bobby every chance he got to get even. You had to see the look on his worthless face when I explained, very respectfully (not my usual loud mouth way), why I would support the Kip slate even despite many disagreements with him over what we need. I knew right then and there I better always watch my back, luckily that is one of my better skills. He next leads 143 into being the union of scabs, remember this was long before August 05. Anyone remember the AS ramp lockout in SEA? Those guys were in the same district and what does Bobby have 143 do? That's right keep interlining those bags to AS, even the tail to tails. Wouldn't that be struck work? Wouldn't that mean crossing a picket line manned by brothers and sisters of the very same district and union? Oh, I see that was just the practice to become scabs at our own employer when ESE's could be told that cleaning and pushbacks were NOT struck work because, wait for it, "that work was IAM work stolen by AMFA". WHAT!?! Wasn't that work always in a differant book? Didn't the employees covered by that book vote IAM out on it's arse? Wait, we're not done. Now if I want to honor a valid picket line at my work location (a right guaranteed under the RLA) what does Bobby tell me? We can't guarantee you won't be fired. Excuse me, try that again. Luckily some of us found a way around that and then a few pushed the issue and even the company agreed we had that right. Still not done Bobby Descab then recomends a concessionary TA that cancels all recall rights for anyone laid off prior to the bankruptcy. Wait, there's more, when I asked him (and his puppets known as the negotiating commitee) what the monthly payouts for the new IAM national pension plan would be he had no answer, but it would be "similiar" to what we had now. Yeah right, numbers finally came out recently my service time was credited as $56/month per year of service (SOC positions were under the sup rate) and if I had stuck around for this enema I would be down to aprox $35/month per year of service, yup sounds similiar to me. As the OP points out anyone who stuck it out is just plain nuts. Sorry Kev, like many others here I am way ahead of not only where I was, but where I would've been even without the BK, strike, and concessions.