IPA has a duty to represent any pilot terminated from employment, process is driven by the Railway Labor Act. Specifically as written in the collective bargaining agreement. Termination process has many steps, some are timely, thus to protect the pilot, the process is followed often to the arbitrator if that is the wish of the pilot. Ultimately, this protects each line pilot by ensuring the company will not attempt to terminate pilots without a specific cause and justification that stands the scrutiny of the entire RLA/CBA process and IPA representation.
Would argue that IPA representation has been very effective since its inception.