Originally Posted by
Scoop
The problem with DALPA as I see it is not with any particular group of Reps - its the structure. We have many well meaning folks that participate and then become totally enthralled with the FP Loss and the lifestyle, staying in union positions for years if not decades. If I were King for a day I would require all DALPA personnel to return back to the line for as long as they were serving in between DALPA gigs. Serve three years as a Rep - go to the line for the next three years. Serve 18 months in an Admin position - back to the line for 18 months minimum.
Some of these guys simply reek of desperation to avoid line flying and others lose touch with some of the day to day challenges of the Line Pilot. I always said that I wanted the DALPA gig to be good to draw the best folks, but perhaps its so good we have guys who start off with the best intentions and end up sticking in the job for self serving reasons.
Scoop - just my 2 cents
I shared your concerns and talked to my rep back in the day when there was more movement to change things administratively (the kind of stuff that happens between contracts). I got really bored one winter and tried to track things down because people would complain in the crew lounge/bus and nothing seemed to ever get done. I actually spoke with BB at an event and he was completely tuned into this issue and was working on fixing it (he struck me as an administrative kind of wonk). I think they put together some kind of team to look at things, and according to the minutes, and it seemed like some things were changed (about the time that MEMRAT for LOAs came about). That was all apparently around 2017 when things were getting re-wired to make things more accountable.
As it was explained to me, there's a pretty broad range of ALPA involvement levels. The vast majority of the committee guys & gals are part time. No flight pay loss, except for a couple days each year for a meeting, and they just do things on their own time. There are full time committee chairs and members, along with the officers (of which there are 4), but the actual full time number is still pretty low. Some committee chairs are only part time, and go into the office on an as-needed basis.
Reps, OTOH, are not full time, and, in theory fly full lines, but between MEC sponsored activities which pay (office duty, CPO meetings, lounge duty) there is apparently considerable flexibility in dropping trips. My (former) rep in MSP told me that he would get 4-6 emails a day, and maybe 6 phone calls a week. Some were easy answers, but maybe 4-6 a month were pretty serious "need help now" kind of events. He went on to say he did something ALPA related to the tune of at least an hour on every overnight. That would get old pretty quick, IMHO.
None of this is secret. The FPL reports are right on the treasurer's page on the MEC website along with a guide that explains how it works. Is there more there? I don't know. I just got a refund check a little while ago, so they seem to run things fairly tight. Some people complain of folks sticking around in these positions, but then some complain about the constant turnover, so I'm not really sure what the balance is.