Unfortunately some ALPA volunteers, while well intentioned, have through some bad advice, treated this alternative representation issue as if it was
treasonous, and have exercised a form of ALPA McCarthyism against our fellow pilots, coworkers, and dues paying members for what is a right under the law and our own constitution - the right to vote for the other guy.
In doing so they have, in my opinion, further alienated and exacerbated the problem while attempting to fix it, and have given the impression that it is more about protecting the organization than it is the pilots they represent, which could not be further from the truth.
While the DPA claims to be a grass roots organization with 3700 members, typically less than 30 people show up at a LEC meeting for a base with thousands of pilots. I have a hard time making the jump from the current apathy to the claimed effectiveness of DPA given that these same grass roots proponents don't show up and vote and could literally remake the MEC in short order should they not be as apathetic as everyone else.
Based on objective measures, and the battles that lie ahead from contractual to industry to legislative, there is no way I can see the proposed alternative agent being more effective than what we have, thorns and all, and would likely be far less effective.
I've heard all the arguments that they've tried and it won't work, entrenched ALPA lifers, etc, etc. and I don't buy it.
The numbers of who participates are hard facts. The fact is the same apathy present now will be present with any successor, and it will just be a different small group calling the shots, albeit less effectively, and the same people complaining about the lack of effectiveness of the next group.
