United Airlines’ Problematic New Pilot Union Boss

It's kind of concerning...

United pilots appoint new MEC chair

The leadership team of the Air Line Pilots Association is called the Master Executive Council. Neil Swindells, a Boeing captain, has been appointed as the new leader of the UnitedMEC. His predecessor resigned due to a family emergency.

Swindells introduced himself and shared his vision for the union in the forums at Airline Pilot Central. He came across as a caring guy who was looking out for his fellow pilots.

He talks about the importance of unity, returning United's pilot group to the top of the industry, and creating the best airline in the history of aviation. It sounds great.

The darker side of United’s new union boss

Some pilots don't like Swindells being appointed as the new union leader and think he's not a good guy. Live and Let's Fly has some recent pictures from Swindells' posts.

This isn't being done under the guise of anonymity because he posted them under his name. The comments only went back as far as 2021. How do we start?

He likes to use the gay community for cheap shots. He said that when he disagreed with people.

Continuing to get your gay man on today, I see. Brava!

And if my Aunt had a penis she’d by my Uncle!

I'm pretty sure that makes his colleagues happy.

When United and Emirates held an event in Washington to celebrate their new codeshare, he wrote, "Emirates was dominating because the airline had a male pilot, while United only had a female pilot."

And I’m sure EMIRATES had NOTHING TO DO with the EMIRATES MALE CAPTAIN being flanked by a UNITED FEMALE FIRST OFFICER, either, right??? EVERY SINGLE OPTIC was DESIGNED with a nod to EMIRATES’ DOMINANCE OF THE CODESHARE, while giving UNITED their desired DEI money shot!!!

That makes his female colleagues happy.

Swindells wrote about the pilots who were on the "scab list".

Fvk them, those fvcking idiots!

Almost threw up when that scab pulled up to his scab house in his scab Corvette. My first thought was “How did that fat fvck even get out of it?” before he walked into his scab house to do a scab interview with a supposed journalist who should have asked him, “Did you think being a scab in a cockpit was going to be all wine and roses, just because you are a fat fvck cAPTAIN?” or maybe “Are you so up your own scab arse that you thought you could steal the food off another man’s table and out of his children’s mouths and he would want to shake your hand be your new best buddy, you scab?”

I hope they all died slow painful deaths of a anal cancer requiring multiple surgeries, and copious amounts of seepage from weeping wounds.

Unions built this profession, the American middle class, and the glory days of the American 20th century after well over a century of death and destruction in the workplace that demanded redress. Union history is replete with the slaughter of workers standing up for their dignity as human beings not corporate slaves.

To watch these cvnts whine about not having their arses kissed in the cockpit and purposely making mistakes to see if they’re caught and corrected, could be the greatest lack of self-awareness ever filmed for TV.

BTW, calling a scab a scab is protected speech, even if you say it right to his face. You are simply stating a fact. Just leave the descriptors out, such as fvcking scab, and it’s not a personal insult, it’s who they CHOSE to be, knocking they were taking money to fvk the guy they now think isn’t being “nice” to them.

Fvck them ALL to Hell!

It's incredibly immature and cruel to hope someone dies of anal cancer requiring multiple surgeries, and "copious amounts of seepage from weeping wounds"

This is only a small sample of the online postings of the union boss.

My take on this situation

I would like to be as balanced as possible.

• There’s no denying that cockpit dynamics are changing over time; pilots hired in the past 10 years are much more diverse than pilots within 10 years of retirement, and that’s something United management in particular has been pushing
• The thoughts of the new union leader boss probably reflect the feelings of a lot of pilots, especially those toward the top of the seniority list
• There aren’t many workplaces where you have people earning $300K+ per year (as a 787 captain at United does, if working a full schedule), yet they can still post like this online without any sort of backlash
• It’s ironic how he talks about making sure pilots “demand the professional respect” that they deserve, but he doesn’t extend that same grace to pilots with opinions that differ from his
• Back in the day it used to be that if you were in a leadership position and were found to be acting this way, you’d resign immediately and would apologize; as much as people love to complain about “cancel culture,” that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore…

This isn't about whether unions are good or bad, and it isn't about unions vs management The contract negotiations between the two parties are unrelated to the fact that United management is not perfect. You would hope that the person that pilots choose to represent them would be someone with good communication skills.

Bottom line

There is a controversial new union boss. This guy has made fun of people who disagree with him on the internet.

What do you think about this situation?