Our money wasn't good enough for ALPA. ALPA is no friend to regional airlines. How self destructive of Prater to testify against regional pilots who help pay his salary in the Colgan hearings. He commented on the training and quality of pilots at regional along with Jeff Skyles (you know, the other guy in the Hudson). Who are they to comment on that, they haven't been inside a regional airline in years if ever. But, I see we are often good enough if they need a ride home. He (Prater) should have walked into those hearings with the cases of irregularity reports of emergency situations handled professionally and safely by regional pilots on a daily basis. Instead he through us all under the bus.

Bottom line we were sold out early on by the Attorney running our local IBT. The IBT itself is who threw him out and so far the Trusteeship seems to be proving itself much more useful then the former. All of this comes at an incredible time for us. In the last six months as our local President had stated "In the past six months we have seen an amazing amount of change here. We have seen the Local enter Emergency Trusteeship and work its way through all of the various hearings and proceedings. We have had a complete change of representation from Business Agents to Attorneys, we have managed to buy or take ownership in/of three airlines, we have introduced a new airframe into our fleet, we have had multiple base openings, closures and attempted openings. We have seen the company use/misuse our displacement language nearly a half dozen different times even going as far as displacing pilots to the bases they had just displaced pilots from and had dozens of smaller yet equally important issues appear across the board. All the while still trying to work our way through Section 6 negotiations. We have established new committees while reorganizing others and I still have no idea what the remainder of the year is going to look like." Seems like enough to deal with for Volunteers, lets throw in some discontent and general disgust for morale.

Anyhow the problem at the Local IBT is out. The real fight will be internal. This is no longer the airline it was 6 years ago with 400 or 500 pilots trying to keep their little airline competitive. Now the majority of pilots here have less then 5 years with the company and the most are fed up with the lies and abuses and employee morale is hitting the floor. There will be a good contract or this place will burn.

It doesn't matter what Union name you put on your card, its the internal network of your local and the unity of your pilot group. The company has so far won the battle of divide and concur. Web boards like this continue to fester with the wrong messages and bickering from one group to the next.

You want to help raise the bar, stop spitting on your fellow pilot, offer something of value, offer some sort of support for the fight they are about to undertake, do not assist with the beating or take a pot shot every chance you get.

I don't always agree with what Toilet Duck has to say but I am certain we could use his enthusiasm and passion for defending things in a much better way then having him waste his time here defending the attacks. We need to channel those kind of emotions as ONE pilot group instead of yours verses mine.

The way the Midwest thing is going down stinks, but its done. Not one RAH pilot had the ability to make a single decision other than to quit his job at the only company in the industry that is currently doing anything but shrinking. Making that decision in a market where flight instructor jobs are hard to come by is far from easy from even the highest hill. Now put your families livelihood on the line with that. You say you'd not tolerate it and leave but would you, really.

The time for bickering is over. We need to join together as pilots not as individual groups, we need to lose the gang mentality and rebuild what government and big business has taken away from this career by pitting us against one another. When a young person asks a question on hear answer it honestly. If you choose to offer your opinion make sure it is known as only your opinion and we could all drop the sarcasm for a while. And or god sakes stop throwing fuel on a flame. I have been guilty of these things too and I am making a commitment to stop as it is not healthy for our collective futures, I invite you to join me.

It's a long enough road, lets walk it together!