Originally Posted by
NERD
Your last sentence is key. Like the tea party they are angry and have some good talking points. Unlike the tea party they don't have many people willing to stick their necks out. Last time I checked they still had nobody willing to be temporary base reps. Typical pilots. Like to ***** and moan but won't run for office. OUR apathy is our problem, not the name of the union. Look at the former north fas. They have gone from a national union to in house and back to national and whatever they are now. So has FDX. What will make us any different?
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That's a good point, Nerd. I suspect that many are unwilling to "stick their necks out" because they're concerned about retribution from Delta. Delta is VERY happy with having ALPA representing our pilot group. I mean, where else could you find a union that would go along with a 42% pay cut, loss of pension, and outsourcing of thousands of jobs... and then go forward for years acting like it's all okay and we don't expect to get a lot of it back? I can certainly see where Delta management would not want ANYTHING to get in the way of that SWEET DEAL! And their actions with regards to DPA certainly bear that out.
I know of instances where guys have been blackballed from being line check airmen solely because they were vocal about wanting ALPA to advocate restoration. It's not much of a stretch to imagine an extra difficult recurrent training session or a line check with "extra special" attention. Many may not be willing to risk that sort of thing.
And then there's the whole apathy thing. You can't even get more than about 30% to vote in an LEC election. It's not surprising that a small number of individuals have stepped up to volunteer for a brand new, unestablished DPA any more than it's not surprising that a relatively small number of people step up to volunteer for a very well established ALPA.