Originally Posted by
newarkblows
I think your opinion carries a lot more weight than most of ours but when i look at what XJT's alpa union goes through in cash, negotiations, having people trained to do jobs (accident response teams, etc), and providing the benefits of excellent medical advisors and legal representation.... there is no way that our pilot group alone could pay for the benefits we receive.
If ALPA is working for ya, awesome. But, you wouldn't have to go far in the ALPA world of carriers to find those who weren't happy. UAL and Mesa both come to mind. Clearly, USAir East, although admittedly, there were far more reasons for them leaving ALPA than they didn't like 'em;-)
Fundamentally, ALPA has a conflict of interest with mainline carrier pilots and contract carriers.
Our alpa hotel committee keeps trying to negotiate better deals for nicer rooms and as a result we have some of the best hotels of any regional. The list is pretty long but the benefits of having a union are definitely there.
SkW has some pretty nice hotels, and a committee to keep them that way. Your last sentence argues the benefits of unions, but the brand of union is important, too.