Originally Posted by
TheManager
OK. One last thing. Can't resist. You mentioned "the fight against Transnational airlines." How would you propose that this "National Union" fight this?? Really. You are Moak, how do you fight this?
And while you are at it, how about foreign ownership?
You will not be able to fight it. That is the point. You need to be part of the process to make it as pro pilot as possible. Fighting something like that with a far left/right position will result in you being ignored. If that were to happen, we would get what we get, and have no say in the limitations on it. I suspect that we will see foreign ownership limits to up to at least 49% by the end of the decade, and the ability for Transnational airlines to exist sometime in the early 2020's. All of this will be earlier if we have a greater financial crisis. The need for money and viability will control this, no matter how bad it may be.
The only way to fight against it, if ALPA were to take that position is one of National Autonomy. It is a great argument, and one that need not be ignored.
With being in the foundation of this issue, you have to have cutouts that allow for National Security issues, labor contracts to not just be acknowledged but adhered to by foreign corporations and counties. Unions recognized and the arbitration and grievance process to be codified with these countries and governing bodies. None of that would take much of a precedence if we were to take a polarized position.
The real world dictates that we realize that a lot will happen that we may not like, but that we need to be a party to the discussion none the less.
It is like RA and Carbon Offsets. He hates it, but became the head of it, because he knew that it could not stop it, and the best way to manage it, was to be part of the organization and team that determined its scope from the onset.
If you wanted to deal with it from a ALPA level and totally kill it, this contract would need to have wording in it from the MEC level that basically stated that no Transnational airlines or foreign ownership would be allowed without MEC approval through a MEMRAT process. ALPA National cannot do that. Our MEC can. We can also deal with a lot of the "what-if's" by binding holding companies and have language that reaches though holding companies to other corporate entities.
Again, it is not the answer that you want, but it is the answer that will give you the best results over a longer period of time.