Originally Posted by
David Watts
CAL joined ALPA back in 2001. The XJT pilots, at the time they were Continental Express, swung that vote in favor of ALPA coming on property. At the time both groups were under the same MEC of the IACP. It would be interesting to see if the the CAL pilots alone would have voted to bring ALPA on property.
Of course the pilots new back then that there was going to be a merger with UAL in 2010
Gordon Bethune was actually partially responsible for that vote back in 2001. He told many a CAL pilot that they needed to think about bringing ALPA back on property as he did see industry consolidation down the road. Heck, one infamous super bowl Sunday in 1998(?) brought CAL extremely close to being merged with Delta. That wouldn't have been pretty with the IACP vs. DALPA. The Continental Express pilots were blamed for bringing ALPA back on property by a big faction of CAL pilots who were against it. Shortly thereafter, the MEC was split and Continental Express was spun off as Expressjet and the rest is history. Yes, the Continental Express pilots(the majority of which are now FO's at CAL) played a huge role in ALPA returning to the CAL property.