The union thing. Instead of being one of our many rock throwers, I actually volunteered, did informational picketing, performed committee work and edited the union magazine. But at the end of it, I found myself pretty much detesting most of the people on our negotiating comittees, the MEC chairmen, and most of the reps. I dealt with. There were notable exceptions, of course, but the majority were men who fancied themselves ersatz executives, never flew a complete line of time and claimed FPL with members' money while treating themselves and their families to lavish vacation "conferences" to discuss "business".
I saw that up close and it sickened me.
One notable exception was a renegade F/O rep who had been recalled twice for breaking confidentiality agreements when he felt necessary information was being suppressed or the pilots were being misled. He was one of the final parts of my decision to leave when he verified our no-furlough clause was going to be overridden by a force majure claim and that the union already knew it, but were telling pilots if they agreed to a very onerous side letter of concessions, all would be safe.
And after I made my career change, those guys indemnified themselves, signed non-disclosures with the company, lied to the pilots and terminated their pensions after specifically and unconditionally telling the them the opposite. That, and some other spectacular failures to represent got them tossed off the property.
So I'm with Eric Hoffer. He said that every great cause begins with a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. My dad had helped organize ALPA on the property in 1954 and served as the first copilot rep. in DCA. There were no work rules, duty limits or retirement plan. He helped change that and when he retired with 40 years of uninterrupted service, he reaped the benefits and knew the value of his efforts. I came on a year later, and the new generation seemed to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The good times were going to last forever, and if not, seniority was a shield to be used to protect the lifestyles of the senior. While I am aware that unions have set the standard of pay and scope for tradesmen since the era of Samuel Gompers, I am also aware humans and their nature are fallible, and greed, and avarice and stupidity thrive unless great care is taken.