Originally Posted by
baseball
If youre so confident in your indisputible statements that are "fact based" then why not go out and poll the mainline pilots as to what they want. Are you afraid of what the majority of mainline dues paying members might say?
I base my analysis on 30 years in the business. Jim Johnson's legal opinion should matter. it's fact based and he's a lead ALPA attorney. If you're trying to monopolize what truth is, what facts are, and what words like indisputable are I'd say you're arguments are thin. Just ask the pilots what they feel. We take so many silly polls on things we can't effect.
Originally Posted by
757Driver
You just answered your own question as of course its a conflict. Over the years commmuters grew into regionals who then morphed into the super non-mainline product we see out there today. These changes all happened at the expense of the Major Airline Pilot. Like Baseball, I've been doing this for more than 30 years and have watched the growth run unabated. We have different interests and never should have allowed the camels nose under the tent in the first place as far as Union representation goes.
Our job is to limit your flying, end of story. We've done a disastrous job doing so and year after year, have given away the store. Self-inflicted, absolutely but do not for one minute think that our end game is to not see your product disappear off the face of the earth. That in of itself, is a conflict of interest and the sole reason we should separate.
As a PS, worked with ALPA's Jim Johnson for many years and respect the man greatly.
I’ve met Mr Johnson many many years ago. But if this is what he is saying, he is wrong. That doesn’t take away from anything he’s done or the knowledge he has in the industry. But I would guess he is being misinterpreted.
This is not about what other pilots feel or want. If a poll says that a majority of people feel that the sky is purple, it doesn’t make it so. This whole “conflict of interest” thing that pilots have is the single biggest misconception in the entire industry. And that’s putting it extremely lightly!
Yes, mainline pilots haven’t done the best at limiting RJ flying (for varied if reasons). But once mainline pilots have negotiated that scope, there is nothing any regional pilot group can negotiate with their regional management that will change what mainline pilots have already negotiated. And that’s why it’s NOT a conflict of interest.
There is NOTHING a regional pilot group can EVER negotiate that will change mainline pilot scope. It’s as simple as that. And since that is a true statement, there isn’t competing interests between the two, and therefore no conflict of interest.