Originally Posted by
Hawaii50
I've always liked the idea of a MALPA as well. I think we're a lot better together than we would be on our own. Might even attract an AA or a SWA down the road. We'd be a powerful force.
Not sure if regionals sueing to abolish exclusive contracts would ever have merit. They are after all, outsourced labor, flying our companies customers. And...we'd have plenty of money relative to them to fight off any attempt.
That said, the last thing I'd want to do is take food out of the mouths of people already making little in many cases. I just think it's in the best interest of all of us to work toward minimizing regional flying and bringing more jobs back to mainline.
All makes sense.
With respect to the middle part, I haven't given a lot of thought, but I wasn't thinking lawsuits. I was thinking something like the wrong mood in congress, an unsympathetic Supreme Court... one group makes a play to change the laws relative to exclusive contracts, backed up by industry lobby. Who knows? What made wonder was airlines in Europe, like Aer Lingus doing wet-lease stuff for Virgin Atlantic, for example. Those guys have unions, and they have contracts. I don't know if they have Scope, but it doesn't seem like they have Scope the way we understand it. Hell, I was once told that Air France has
seven pilot unions. How does that work?
I could be off the reservation completely on this one. I just remember I came from a regional, and it was a crap regional. We brought in ALPA just as I started. We kept slugging it out with the company, but the thought never once occurred to us to make a direct play for the major's flying. Just droning along, going deaf on PT-6 noise, and hoping, one day, to escape.
I didn't really think we were screwing the Delta guys by having access to Aeromedical. I just wanted to be there (here), and for the majors to shut down the regional loophell we were living in.