You have it in US government but you also have a checks and balances in place in that you can elect two local representatives in your district and your state and the President. There you get 3 shots at having a say, 4 if you count voting for both Senators. What do we really get with year end and year out representation with ALPA, 1 vote?

Now to draw a parallel to Washington D.C. Look at 2006, a party campaigned completely different than it intended to run knowing the important part was winning the majority then the new freshman class would be brought in line and the entrenched and established power people would take control. So the freshman were either knowingly or unwittingly played under the guise of some cause but in reality the cause was reestablishing power for a group within the party that could never win an election outright.

2010, a party could barely get out of the way of a grassroots no name wave. The party, run by inside the beltway appeasers, is excited to be back in power, thinks the freshman will get in line and were shocked they stood firm. In fact, everyone was shocked. That wave is a little more mad now and chances are the freshman will be ever more embolden seeing as how those in charge thought they'd tote an insider DC line instead of a constituent line. Insiders are very unhappy. Outsiders are getting ever more perturbed.

Two situations here that I think are similar to what happens in LEC elections. You get a flood of emails from people you don't know saying vote for me, I am a scope hawk and love pay raises and so forth. Nobody says ALPA National saeculum primum, temper your expectations and I hope you're ready to give something up for a 15% over 5 year raise of which only 5% is guaranteed money.

So it's hard to figure out who is telling the truth and who when they get to work within the group will be more fighters like the 2010 freshman and less pawns like the 2008 freshman.

You're actually lucky if you know someone and believed in them enough to vote for them but if they don't win, then what? Who is in? What are they going to do in our equivalent to inside the beltway? Were they insiders from the beginning? Since its mostly behind the doors how do you know what they're really actually doing and saying? And when the time comes that you don't like where the leadership is taking the union you're supposed to recall a rep... that may or may not be good for you and hope at the same time everyone else does the same. It's a lot of layers and I really don't think any union ever set it up any other way because it truly protects the insiders. Hence, why not have the DPA work within the ALPA system? Because you're asking to be defeated in the bureaucracy and NDAs when you could win in the open and white sheet the whole thing.

Now if it were me, this is what I would want to see in a pilot union:

1. For the guy in charge of where the union is headed. Everyone answers to him except the LEC Reps. Fire him and you fire everyone he hired and they're all sent back to hell... also known as the line. But this allows for unambiguous leadership from 1 person and that person is directly accountable to you.

2. And for the LEC Rep that represents your base, seat and type of flying (domestic or international category). So as an ATL M88 B, I'd vote for an ATL Domestic FO Rep.

With the ability to vote for the top and for your true local rep, you're looking at a system that prevents the majority being run by a small group of entrenched insiders which is inherent in any governing body with their hands on the treasury and communication lines.