Originally Posted by
Bat Guano
Fair enough. Now, how? Do you really think that ALPA has the horsepower to enact this change? I don't. I paid APLA dues for 13 years when I flew Part 135 on a Metro (12k/year) and then Part 121 for USAir Express. In my career, there have been at least 3 big watershed events that could have precipitated some real changes within the piloting profession/ALPA. They never happened.
ALPA is a big flying club that effectively only unionizes within each airline it represents. We look spiffy on Capitol Hill in our crisply pressed uniforms but that's about it. ALPA Legal (on an individual certificate scale) and ALPA Medical are both top-notch. But on a National level? Weak and without the tools to enact real change from my viewpoint. Hell, we even had ALPA pilots petitioning the Fed Gov to withhold stimulus monies from other ALPA pilot groups during the last industry upheaval! It wasn't so much effyew I got mine, it was effyew we got ours. Same dismal response leading to the same dismal results.
Sorry to be such a downer, but very little has changed (though nearly EVERYTHING else has changed) regarding ALPA representation issues from the top of the pile to the bottom. Big airlines have money and horsepower. Small airlines hold bake sales to get by. Until there is a National Seniority List, there will be a big cha$$$m between flying for a small regional and a large Intl airline.
Bat
sounds like you and I have been through about the same level of sh@t in our flying lives. I got in back in the bad old days (1990). How you ask. That’s certainly a fair enough question. There was a grumbling/rumor about a push for a universal seniority list back in the day, but there always seemed to be a crisis, a new disaster, whatever of the day, week, month, year it just seemed to die on the vine because there was ALWAYS too many pilots for each respective pilot job.
ALPA has always and I fear WILL always cater to the mainline at the detriment of the “regional” carrier. I can’t really say the word regional without wanting to spit after. Let’s face it. “Regional” means TYR/DFW, it sure as hell doesn’t mean DFW/SEA. Once we can all agree on terms, only then can we all move forward. Regional = “C” scale. No, it’s not a typo, not “B” scale, “C” scale. Second class treatment at every turn no matter what. Sadly, even by mainline pilots whose colors we flew.
They wrongly equated a lower level of competence and a lower level of professionalism proportional to the size of the aircraft we flew. Comair struck in order to end the second class treatment of small jet operators.
Back to the how.
yes this crisis is a kick in the nuts, and it’s gonna put a dent in things for a little while. But I believe we still have a historic opportunity in front of us. It’s gonna take a fundamental change in the way ALPA, and the pilot group as a whole handles things—which should be demanded of them. Stop groveling for scraps when we could take the whole plate. This seniority shell game that just happened to TSA and Compass is just WRONG. But is a perfect example of why seniority is such an important issue. It should be the gold standard.
I agree that there are some very good things available from ALPA, aeromedical, legal, etc.but they are falling short in the seniority department.
I think the first question should be. WHY?