It's a no-brainer. ALPA policy involves direct negotiations between the pilot without the possibility of management or some business agent speaking up for us if we were no union/IBT. Could I really trust Buddy or my Colgan Air Family to bargain on my behalf?

I know for a fact that under the ALPA policy, the PILOTS negotiate directly with each other. I really don't know who would be speaking up for me if we were IBT. Is it a "business agent," or some IBT union employee like this Ms. Ashley Mosher who sent that extremely deceiving email to the Colgan pilots? If there is a union employee involved, I don't even want to hear it - they have no interest divested in a merger, and I can't trust someone like that speaking on my behalf. Does IBT have a merger policy spelled out in their constituion, and does it directly involve the pilots? If anyone can point me to an official IBT document that states these policies, please do so!
Also, under Allegheny-Mohawk, if the pilot groups don't resolve the issue by themselves, it goes to directly to binding arbitration, which is comprised of one person. Under the ALPA merger policy, it goes to mediation first, then arbitration, which is made up of three neutral parties as opposed to ONE.

You're right, ALPA merger policy did govern US Air/AWA. But they couldn't come to an agreement on their own, so they chose to let it go to arbitration. If they were going to blame someone, they should blame their own MEC. ALPA had nothing to do with it except to provide a process. Obviously, US Air pilots got the short end of the stick. How can you not feel terrible for these senior pilots would lost everything through mutiple bankruptcies and then this merger. But by design, everyone loses in a merger. That's why it's called negotiation - it's GIVE AND TAKE. I think if they could've just resolved the list on their own, they could've been happier (or less mad) about the outcome. But you can't cry after you let it go to arbitration and the arbitrators come out with a decision you don't like.

People love to cite the US Air example, but it's actually pretty irrelevant. ALPA national doesn't even get involved until the seniority list is actually hammered out. If anything, it just goes to show you that 1. It would've been better to come to an agreement on their own rather than letting a third party do it. 2. ALPA doesn't "favor" certain groups. Many Colgan pilots are fearful that ALPA will favor Pinnacle since they are bigger and thus provide bigger chunk of change in dues. If this were the case, US Air pilots would've gotten a windfall out of their merger.

And speaking of Allegheny-Mohawk, do you know what happened in the seniority merger process between Chautauqua and Shuttle America even when both groups were Teamsters? Perfect example of why I won't trust IBT in the case of a merger.