Yes, because I know a whole lot of regional FOs (or even captains) who can throw down $1,000 at the drop of a hat.

Talk about "pure B.S."

Anyone who thinks that the ALPA structure is "bloated" hasn't been to Herndon or the DC Office in many, many years (or never). Such an argument might have been made in the "good old days," but not now. ALPA runs quite lean. Some would say too lean.

As far as a 1% dues structure being able to fund a regional pilot's union, that's nothing but pure fantasy. We had an independent union at AirTran prior to joining ALPA. Our dues rate during contract negotiations was 2.15%. Even with that dues rate, we struggled to have enough money to fund the essentials, and that was with very few people ever on flight pay loss. I have a feeling that you don't have an understanding of just how much it costs to hire attorneys, professional negotiators, accountants, and financial analysts, all of which are absolutely necessary for even the basic functioning of a labor union. That doesn't even begin to look at the other people like R&I specialists, Aeromedical, accident investigators, and so on. The costs to fund all of this are astronomical. Your $6 million figure as being something that could work shows just how clueless you are about how expensive this stuff is. You wouldn't even scratch the surface of necessary services for several pilot groups at that amount of money.

Highly doubtful that the AFL would ever accept a competing pilot's union for membership. Our profession doesn't have a big enough membership to justify multiple unions within the AFL.

There will be no assessments or additional dues.