Normy,
Good stories and for the most part, points well taken..... Except for your last paragraph, which I don't necessarily agree with. It's not that I don't believe that having ALPA on the property is a very good thing, because I do. It's just that I don't believe that FedEx would intentionally put anyone into an "interesting situation", especially like the ones that you addressed in your post. The possible exception would be sleep related, or should I say, lack of preparedness for flight and the company demanding you operate the trip. As for the mechanical issues, for the 17 or so years I flew at FedEx, I never experienced anyone demanding that the flight crew operate a jet (with a mechanical issue or suspect system.) And I should add, a few of those years were prior to either the FPA or ALPA. I'm not saying that that never happened, just that I never witnessed it.
JJ