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I am not very familiar with unions specifically how to get out of one and form a new one. When I was hired, I was working for about a year before I was told that I was part of a union. The pilot group which is about 20 of us are lumped into another professional union. I pay no union dues, never been asked to, and have never been contacted by my union rep at time of hire or any other time and just found out who our rep is. The CBA is written for people who work regular scheduled hours and if applied to pilots they are not following the CBA haven't paid overtime, provided meals and scheduled more days than what the CBA says. The pilot group was always under the impression that we were FLSA exempt, but per HR response we are hourly employees. Our bonus is also capped at 5 percent instead of ten percent, it was explained to me the reason for the cap is because we're in the union. The cap is costing each pilot about 5,000 a year but we are taxed on the full ten percent and our paycheck stub doesn't show where the capped 5 percent goes. Thats a lot of money for no real representation.

Our working conditions have deteriorated, and the pilots want out of the union and not lumped in with someone else, but the non-pilots won't vote to change unions. We are reaching out to the union to have a discussion about changes to the CBA to cover the pilot group but are very concerned we will not be treated fairly and fear retaliation. Can the pilots opt out of the union then form their own or are we stuck in the union that doesn't represent us at all? If we opt out and join another, is it possible with such a small group of pilots? How long does normally take to negotiate and whole new CBA for our group if that's the best path. Thanks for any input and advice.