My last 3 years at sUAL before I left I flew with 3 FO's that were "involved" with the union before the furlough in late 2001. I asked what they did on furlough. They said "I worked for ALPA". The more questions I asked, the more defensive they got.

Apparently ALPA takes care of their own. When a normal line pilot gets furloughed, he has to fend for himself. When an ALPA cronie gets furloughed, there is a job created for them, and the remaining pilots get charged extra as a "furlough fund".

The current ALPA furlough coordinator at sUAL has now held the position twice of furlough. If I remember right, he got a pay raise when he was furloughed, the first time, and went to work for ALPA. I don't know what his current deal is with ALPA, but he holds the same title he did from 2002 till he came back to work at UAL and I worked with him.

I questioned all of them about how they got the job. Was the job advertised for all UAL pilots? Did they interview for the job? You can pretty much guess at the evasive answers I got.