Originally Posted by
LuckyNow
We already have PBS.
If UAL, DAL, and AAL wanted to form a separate union of legacy carriers, that'd be something. ALPA as it stands now is a massive conflict of interest, how can an association both advocate for SCOPE for one faction of its pilots and in the other side of the building represent regional carriers looking for a bigger bite of the apple? No thanks.
Originally Posted by
baseball
Great point. ALPA is a massive conflict of interest. They push for and use your dues dollars to subsidize the smaller regional airlines and pushing for bigger scope cut outs, which is negotaitng against you, and then they negotiate for the major airlines and tell us to give up scope.
There should be two ALPA's: One for the regionals and one for the Majors. I think now more than ever ALPA should divide into two separate associations.
Regional Airline Pilots Association
Airline Pilots Association
Any ALPA guys want to chime in on this???????
There is no conflict of interest. Mainline management negotiates with mainline pilots and decide what to scope in/out. With that in hand, mainline management go to all regional management and make them compete for the left overs mainline pilots couldn't/wouldn't scope in. Once mainline management is done whipsawing regional management and pick the lucky winner of the scraps, the winning regional management(s) negotiate pay and work rules for that left over flying with their own pilots.
At no time is any regional ALPA MEC (or any regional union for that matter) able to dictate/negotiate with their regional management, (or mainline pilots, or mainline management), what the scope of the flying will consist of. Mainline pilots have already made that decision by that time.
At ALPA, no MEC can tell any MEC what to negotiate or not negotiate for. A regional MEC cannot tell a mainline MEC not to scope more aircraft. And if they did, they would be laughed out of the building. Each pilot group is its own independent union when it comes to contract negotiations. If mainline MEC wants to scope in any aircraft with the mainline name on it, there is absolutely nothing that any regional MEC can do about that. Conversely, if regional MEC(s) want to fly larger aircraft (E190, CS100, 737, etc), there is nothing they can do to make that happen unless their regional airline is going the independent airline route, ala Independence Air. Regional management cannot dictate to mainline management or pilots just because their regional pilots want to fly larger aircraft.
Anyway, most regional pilots would like to see tighter mainline scope. So from a grassroots point of view, there certainly isn't a conflict of interest.
This whole conflict of interest is a HUGE misconception!