Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
Because they don't work for the organization. They're supposed to work for the pilots who they represent. Any current ALPA rep that didn't feel that way should never again be allowed to do union work.
I would do it in a heartbeat because the people I would work for wouldnt have changed. Just the union name.
Do you always answer your own questions?
I thought so.
Carl
Let's just say I really don't believe that. I think we will agree that most ALPA volunteers (you and me included I'm guessing) do it for the sake of their fellow pilots, not ALPA national. I just don't get why guys think the DPA is some sort of panacea to anything that might ail ALPA.
I think we tend to take any of ALPA's failures and magnify them across decades, while not being aware of or even ignoring any success. Think that "DPA Aeromedical" will be anything remotely as effective or useful as ALPA Aeromedical? Guys complain about Age 65, but since it passed Congress unilaterally, we all see how effective the APA was in stopping that train--their own congressional rep igonored them!
As for SWAPA...yes they've been and are a great in-house union, but they were (and are) some of the strongest "Repeal Age 60" groups out there. Strangely none of the venom reserved for ALPA--who actually shaped some of the Age 65 legislation to make it even less onerous than it could have been (no 61 year old retirees coming back to take "their" old left seat)--has been thrown at SWAPA, where it should have been from the outset.
Carl, I can tell you are a good guy, and I just have to disagree with you. I acknowledge that national ALPA is a mixed bag, but I think we are better off remaining with them than leaving--just a business decision in my opinion, just as you feel the DPA is the best business decision.