Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Not taken as an "excuse," but when pilots are brought up in a culture which encourages pilot pushing they become used to it. At these airlines the Captains who take the risks are heroes until they break something or get regulatory attention. Then management sacrifices the Captain's certificate to get the FAA off their back, but continues pushing the next guy. This is why our union pushes back for "One Level of Safety" across the board.
As others have mentioned, a union which is conflicted about outsourcing loses focus on its core mission. It is impossible to take the moral high ground on safety, while out the back door you agree with management to facilitate outsourcing.
While I do not speak on behalf any of the candidates, a reason I support Dave Nestor and Chad Smith is my impression that they "get" ALPA's mission and are clearly focused on the foundational principles on which our association was built.* **
Besides, at some level, Delta has the same interest that we do. Operating a safe airline is priority number 1. We share common ground here.
* I'm no Expert on the matter, JMHO.
** I think Armando Gomez gets it too, but as an incumbent he's already vetted and qualified by the record of his actions.
ALPA can't change the safety culture of an airline by itself. Safety and politics, within each airline, need to be kept entirely separate, otherwise you'll have hostages on both sides of the field and you'll be sacrificing safety while you try to keep the company from signing another La Quinta contract.
Let the safety folks do their work, let the political folks do their work.
BUT!
The political side of the union is the side that has to empower pilots to feel secure knowing their safety related decisions will be supported. At DAL, ala SMS, we get "stop the operation. We'll back you 100%". In other words, we have the support of management. At DCI, the pilots are too busy trying to get to DAL, so they don't want to make waves, so they don't feel that they can stop the operation in the interest of safety. Tough to risk manage when all you want is to fly for someone else.
DALPA can only do so much besides be a good example though, unless next section 6 the pilot group decides to spend negotiating capital on ensuring DCI carriers use the DAL hiring process, and have robust ASAP and FOQA programs. So let Chad and Dave set the example, but let them be experts in politics, and let the safety experts be the safety experts. Otherwise...well...you can imagine how we'll that'd go over.
Each culture of each airline is unique, and each culture is passionately nationalistic. So just wishing for it won't change it. Bringing the airlines in closer (ala Pinnacle) may effect some positive change, however.