Originally Posted by
baseball
I respectfully disagree. I fully support a "regional pilots association" for the regional industry.
Our industry, that of mainline can better represent our interests.
I have seen the historical finances of various MEC's. I've seen mainline moneys being sent down to regional carriers to support their contract efforts.
I would bet dollars to donuts if we stood in the crew rooms for a month (not in C-19) times mind you, but if we took the time to do in person interviews and asked mainline pilots how they felt you would hear an echoing of my sentiments. Mainline pilots should have more of a voice as to how their dues moneys are spent and, if what you say is true, then, I am sure you wouldn't mind a constitutional amendment in the CBL that states "it shall be unconstitutional to spend mainline dues moneys, or intermingle these funds for contract negotiations, maintenance, or enforcement at regional carriers." Another words, allow access to safety, and aeromedical and a few others, but if they don't need our money, might as well fence those funds off.
Respectfully,
Just because the masses don’t agree doesn’t mean it’s not true.
You didn’t argue any of the points I made on why it’s not a conflict of interest. You simply mentioned subsidization, which does happen. My point is that that is irrelevant because that money isn’t being used in a way that is negative to mainline pilots. In essence, it’s equivalent to those things you mentioned, aeromedical, safety, security, etc.
If you want to have a conversation on how dues money is allocated, then that’s a different one.
I’ll reiterate again. Mainline management negotiates with mainline pilots on what to scope in/out. Whatever isn’t scoped in, mainline management puts it up to bid and awards it to the lowest bidder. That regional airline now negotiates with their pilots on the rates of pay and working conditions of the flying that mainline pilots couldn’t/wouldn’t scope in. The results of the regional pilots negotiations have absolutely no impact on mainline pilots because it’s for flying they are not going to do anyway.
For example, if they negotiated some exorbitant rate of pay for their 76 RJ flying, it’s not taking away from mainline pilots because they’ve already made their bed. Mainline pilots’ negotiations have already been finalized by the time regional management is negotiating with regional pilots. Nothing that comes of that can change what already happened at mainline.
If you can argue the points in that last paragraph above, fine. I’ll be happy to have that conversation. But if you just want to have a conversation on dues allocation, I’ll leave that to someone else.