Originally Posted by Check Complete

I think the answer to that question is probably nobody really knows? But you probably know that too? It would stand to reason that if a pilot was to be terminated by the company and had real legal counsel representation there would be far less company attempts.

Think about it, the company can do just about anything it wants because it knows there's about one in a thousand people like DD that is going to fight back. What about the guy that got terminated because it was suspected that he was intoxicated? The local authorities dropped all the charges. Made the headlines and he was terminated. Employee review was to be reinstated but was still terminated. Had no legal ability to fight back and his career is ruined. Of course nobody will ever know, but I think just the threat of available dedicated legal counsel, he'd probably still be here?

What about his rights just so the company can say they fired the suspected culprit? Bottom line is that pilots are getting terminated for mistakes and yes some of the mistakes are bad. A dedicated counsel may just be able to negotiate some retraining instead of termination?

What about the resent disaster for the JB pilots accused of their crimes? What would they be able to protect themselves from, legally, without resources from their union. I'm not saying what may or may not have happened but how would it be to face this situation without a true counsel provided to you. I would imagine self hired counsel for something of this nature would want upwards of 50K as a retainer?