1. ALPA aeromedical kept me from being grounded by a irregular EKG found on a physical.

2. ALPA national and it's lawyers helped 9E pilots file a grievance against the company worth millions when the company elected to swap 401K providers and not tell anyone. This grievance gets heard in December.

That's where "personal" lies for me, the national dept is an amazing resource to have at your disposal if you are doing union work. From legal to technical to pros in various fields that will call you personally at no cost to you its a pretty good thing. That being said a union is only as good as it's members and the leaders they elect. If you have an apathetic group and pilots running uncontested for important spots you can't expect to have a membership happy with the results.

I never said ALPA doesn't have flaws though- because they do. Prater actually reads this board (at least he told me he did and knew me by my username) so let em have it. If members don't tell leaders the problems nothing gets fixed.