Originally Posted by
ewrbasedpilot
I keep wondering how ALPA's legal staff seems to be light years BEHIND managements. You'd think with all the dues we pay, we'd have better than just "mediocre" legal representation negotiating for us..............
Instead, they've become masters at writing unreadable contracts that are filled with so many holes for management, that swiss cheese looks solid in comparison.
I don't think ALPA lawyers are the problem, really. They just do the best with what they're given. Would higher-priced lawyers help? Maybe, but probably not.
Some of the scope sections for majors are quite honestly out of control. The inherent nature of scope means that some flying is included, and some is excluded. The more crap you throw on there, the more convoluted and error-prone it gets. Combine that with the fact that no contract (in any industry, not just labor contracts) is air-tight and you can see how any lawyer paid to do this sort of thing will be able to drive a Mack truck through the language.
I think the bigger problem is the inability of pilot groups to look into the future and predict trends. Was it really that much of a stretch to predict that Delta would try to replace narrowbody aircraft with the CRJ when it was introduced with Comair in the early 90s? Whether the pilot group or the MEC realized this or not is the issue, but unfortunately we're all stuck with the consequences.
The only airtight scope is, "All flying for XYZ Airlines must be done by XYZ pilots." But it's a little too late for that one.