Originally Posted by
ConnectionPilot
It's relevant because he said he was ready for a union. I just asked why he was ready and why he thinks ALPA is a better step forward than what we have now.
I worked at Mesaba, then Pinnacle. Went through the bankruptcy and decided to leave before ALPA passed a contract WITH MANAGEMENT that the pilot group voted in, after being threatened they would lose their jobs if they voted no. A contract which anchored the race to the bottom. Do I blame the 9E guys for voting it in? Of course not. That's their livelihood and they have to have a job to survive.
Why don't I want ALPA at SkyWest? Because I am a lot happier at SkyWest than I was at 9E. Knowing I don't have to worry about a simple case of conflict of interest between ALPA at a regional and ALPA at a legacy. Things need to change, for sure, but that's not the answer.
The key phrase to your post is "pilots voted in"! Whether Delta held a gun to the MEC or not isn't relative to the fact that the pilots voted on these issues. Other than pay SAPA has carte Blanche allowances to vote in all "contract" changes with no I put from pilots. And while ALPA is only as good as its MEC they have significant limits to their ability to change any/all of the contract without LEC/reps input and eventually all pilots voting. Our group has gone backwards from where we started heading in 2007/2008, namely a more independent board that listened to pilots. Now Sapa is isolated and our "officers" are spending too much time in SGU and think they know what's best for us.
It's time for a change of venue. Not because skywest is such an awful place, but because they are no longer playing the same game as when SAPA was established. And now Sapa thinks they are "fighting" for us by voting in proposals like "reflow 1-2-3"! Or allowing the company to deal on our behalf over jumpseats. Or allowing the company to dictate a change to policy that now has all crews on any DH (including training) to be a slightly elevated non rev status (even though it used to say differently). Just a few examples of SAPA's willingness to be agreeable and pilots having no say in the matter.....or for that matter not being able to at least hold up our contract in court.