Originally Posted by
Nevjets
I've been a member on my regional MEC. You don't know what you are taking about. No one tells any MEC what to negotiate for, period. National provides attorneys and other specialist. But there are no pilots, other than those on that properties seniority list, that tell anyone anything as far as guidance on what to negotiate for.
There may be no incentive for one MEC to help another, which is precisely why no mec tells anyone else what to do. Each does what they feel is in their best interest. Most times those interest line up but sometimes they may not.
Lastly, MEC's as diverse as the demographics up the each base and seat. I'm my mec, I've seen senior, junior, old, young, reserve, line holder, instructor, men, women (in fact, one of them is an equal executive Vice President in ALPA national...oooh conflict of interest!). When I was serving, we had all those except a female.
I'm telling you, this whole ALPA conflict of interest is BS. The conflict of interest is in sapa. But if you don't like ALPA because you continue to believe it has a conflict of interest, you can certify sapa and have the best of both worlds.
I voted yes in 2006, primarily as insurance (and I'm happy to have alpa at my legacy). I suspect QOL at SKW would be better today if it had passed, but also don't know what unintended consequences might have come about, such as SLI.
The point being that some regional people like to represent alpa as something it's not, in some cases with a cultish religious fervor which far exceeds certain real religions I can think of. It's purely a business proposition, not a brotherly order or religion.
The potential benefits of unions at the regional level are limited... if you hit it out of the ballpark, you're heading for the comair gravyard eventually. The only way that could change is if a dedicated national regional union managed a one-list arrangement (don't hold your breath). Alpa national will of course not go there because the B-scale benefits their largest and most lucrative demographic.
Not even saying shun unions... but understand the limitations and pitfalls.
One last thing...I have to wonder if you spend all this time promoting alpa for SKW to possibly enable a CCP and SLI, thereby saving your job. Anyone who is going to vote for alpa at SKW needs to understand what a common carrier petition is. Might be better off with teamsters for that reason.