Originally Posted by
tsquare
I am happy for you that you are senior enough to not work holidays. My seniority is a choice and I am not complaining about that. That being said. We are a 24/7 worldwide operation. There needs to ALWAYS be a point of contact. It is good business for our association to be available. It marginalizes them to not be. Frankly, if something happens on a weekend, ALPA is the LAST thing that enters my mind because I know how difficult it will be to get in touch with anybody.
I don't despise them either. Never said that.
Sorry, yes, you did not say you despise them. It is just the attitude that some have and I shouldn't have generalized or put words in your mouth.
I wish I was senior enough to be home on holidays and weekends. I can do the weekends off but that is on reserve and, well, reserve sucks. I just think that it is an easy thing for guys to through out there when they complain about ALPA. "I wish I didn't have to work weekends or holidays" "Those guys don't ever work on weekends or holidays and that along with the FPL is the only reason they do it, oh, they also get paid 100 hrs a month" Those are all comments that I hear and I think that is a poor generalization and even if that was the case, I don't ever remember hearing that we have too many pilots volunteering to work for the union.
Now, I totally agree with you that someone needs to be available from the union on a 24 hr 7 day a week basis. And not just the reps, but someone from the core committees that impact daily life on the line (contract admin, scheduling, etc). And, since they are getting paid for being on call (through FPL) there really needs to be a metric for tracking response time. I know that I have left messages before (when at fNWA) and never received a call back or maybe many days later, after the scheduling violation occurred. Maybe we need a DALPA OCC pilot, someone who can be the receiver of the calls and manage a proper communication between pilots in need and some from the union.