Originally Posted by billtaters

The “greed on both sides” argument grows tired and falls short of reality. For example, with the realistic timeline of the age change to 67, I’ll be a widebody Captain and will only benefit financially, yet I’m staunchly opposed.

The safety argument isn’t measured in whether “planes are falling out of the sky” in countries that have already raised the age. The overwhelming majority of drunk driving events get home safely, without incident or arrest, yet driving drunk is still less safe. The reality of our industry is that we don’t have an adequate means of measuring cognitive decline built into our work, training/evaluation, or medical process. I have a family member 7 years into an Alzheimer’s diagnosis that can still pass cognitive tests, appear to have nothing wrong, etc, depending on the day. This doesn’t mean someone becomes unsafe on their 65th birthday, but the statistical reality of decline and the absence of an adequate safety mechanism to catch it in our industry remains a safety obstacle that is worthy of discussion.

I respect the opinions of those like Symbian, who disagree with my position yet aren’t actively undermining our union. What I find detestable, and what we all should find detestable, are the members and leaders of organizations like LEPF, who work to significantly damage ALPA’s credibility, who are actively trying to force more stringent medicals on 100% of us, who attempted this change that would have greatly reduced our leverage in the heat of a collective bargaining cycle, who aren’t respectful of what the collective group of their peers has directed via polling and union resolution, etc. At my company, such LEPF “leaders” include a guy who spent years 0-37 of his tenure silently fine with and benefitting from the retirement age until finally taking issue with it during years 38-39. Another was a former ALPA rep, staunchly vocally opposed to age 65, only to now be advocating for no retirement age now that he’s a senior 777 captain. It’s hard to respect people like this, and promoting a false equivalency of “greed on both sides” with such anti-union behavior is unhealthy.

New pilots to this industry look to have promising careers. They’ve enjoyed early upgrades and good pay at some carriers. But I don’t know what downturns will face them later on. Even if they have none and enjoy a textbook, perfect career path, that and no other excuse justifies undermining our union.