Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
About as immoral as me not catching a mechanic having turned off Hydraulic B and getting a glare from the Captain when his tiller is locked in concrete. I screwed up, wish that I had caught it and I will be more careful next time. But the TWA situation is world's more complicated than my failure to notice a switch position. With TWA, the entire issue depends a lot on speculation:
- What would happen if they had just gone out of business
- What would happen if American really would have just bought the assets without pilots
- What would happen in bankruptcy before a Judge
I'd have fought releasing section 1 and if it happens here, I will fight it. The TWA pilots should have fought it AND if ASA can throw ALPA's attorney out of the room during final negotiations, TWA could have too.
This is kind of like two lovers fighting because the kid turned out ugly. They both knew what they were doing when the wine and roses came out.
You're still confusing me on this point Bar, but maybe I'm just thick. I don't see how you can call what ALPA and ALPA's attorneys tried to do with their in-house union of clerical workers a mistake. They were told over and over again by that union that ALPA was doing something legally wrong and reprehensible. ALPA went ahead and did it anyway. The union took them to court and ALPA lost. Your analogy would be correct if the captain told you over and over that the B pumps were OFF, but you still didn't activate them. It wasn't just a screw up. It was an act of union busting no different than Lorenzo at Continental and Eastern. The only difference is that Lorenzo won and ALPA lost.
Regarding TWA, it doesn't matter what ultimate fate would have befallen TWA. That has no bearing on things whatsoever. ALPA was the TWA pilot's bargaining agent. ALPA was alleged to have purposefully failed to represent them in order to ulitmately win the favor of 10,000 pilots to become ALPA members. A jury ruled that ALPA was guilty of doing just that. I understand why ALPA did what they did. They were looking at what they thought was the greater good. If they walked away from 2000 TWA guys that were about to become APA members anyway, they had a possibility of gaining 12,000 new ALPA members. All you have to do is convince yourself that the short term immoral decision will lead to a greater good down the road.
My experience is that everytime you make those kinds of rationalizations in life, it ultimately kills you a little. Doing the right thing is what it is. So is morality. They simply cannot be for sale. IMO, ALPA did rationalize immoral decisions. They lost both times. I still don't know whether your position is that you think they've learned their lesson, or whether the decisions weren't immoral in the first place.
Carl