Originally Posted by
thaddiusMbuggs
Agreed. There is power in numbers.
I know plenty of people at smaller airlines have had experiences with ALPA (in their opinions) not being overly helpful etc... But I ask, how many of you were working for airlines with the numbers we are talking here? ALPA isn't stupid...they won't bite the hands that feed them, and 5000+ new hands is a lot of food and plenty of reason to do all they can to be a positive force for SKW and in turn the regionals.
That being said, after the pay package it seems all the folks who were pushing hard for a union have quietened. I for one would like to see ALPA get on board at SKW and think the positives outweigh the negatives, but it just seems like people who were for it have stopped caring so much about the drive. Suspect SAPA will be all the representation we have for the foreseeable future.
*Just an opinion before anyone starts coming after me with torches and pitchforks*
This is why I try to make the case that a union, ALPA in particular, is more than just a pay package. A union advocates for ALL aspects of an airline pilots’ career. So when it comes to safety and security initiatives especially, ALPA is the only pilot union to go with, not to mention aeromedical and a myriad of other areas.
Originally Posted by
savedbythevnav
A lot of these seem to have been put in place at OO around the '07 drive in an effort to stop it from succeeding (I wasn't here then, so I could be wrong). Seems to just be a band-aid. Hopefully ALPA is successful this time around because I feel we are really missing out on a lot of great resources. A group of 5,000 pilots could really be influential on the national level when it comes to representing the regional side of the business.
That’s a really good point. A pilot size like Skywest would get an executive Vice President at ALPA National. They would be the only regional with their own representative at that level.
Originally Posted by
bradthepilot
Not going to argue with that, but I would ask - why ALPA in particular? At the regional level, from what I've seen on other sections here, ALPA isn't universally loved and in fact a good argument can be made that ALPA is exactly the wrong group to represent any regional because it is a conflict of interest with their representation of mainline pilots.
This is the biggest misconception with ALPA. Each ALPA pilot group is represented by their own MEC elected only by their own pilots. Their MEC is the only entity with fiduciary responsibility to their pilots. No other MEC or national can compel any other MEC to anything, period. Jus like the Skywest MEC wouldn’t be able to tell any other MEC to do something they don’t want. Mainline MECs decide what scope they want to negotiate, no one else. If they won’t or can’t scope in all their flying, some of their airlines’ flying is put out to bid. Then regional management comes in and submits bids for this flying. Mainline management chooses the winner(s). Now the regional MEC, who to this point has had no say on what gets outsourced or who wins the bid, negotiates with their regional management on the terms and pay of this flying. Mainline MEC cannot tell the regional MEC not to negotiated for $200/hr pay rates or anything else.
No conflict of interest anywhere in that process.