Originally Posted by
SaltyDog
Tony,
WOW! All I can say, you sadly don't appreciate the power of a union. About the only way to get fired at my employer: Steal or lie, or repeatedly fail to show up to work or report to work drunk. .....
We have in our contract provisions for folks who cannot pass an upgrade. You would not have lost your job. Our contract would exhaust more training, more OE, finally if still unable to muster through, Return to your previous F/O seat .......
Your comment on ALPA is dead on, but that my friend IS politics.
Firing for failing upgrade is the current rule. I suspect that based on the sime fact that the current captains support the rule, it would continue into any union contract. But the simple answer is; we cannot know for sure, and just having a union is no guarantee that rule will change.
Current captains at SkW have failed transition training from he prop to the jet and they keep their jobs and return to the previous seat. They got theirs, and now they're protected.
Get drunk.... There's a program. Have a certificate action, company has a lawyer. But, fail upgrade, fired... No hearing, no review.
So, I am arguing that a union is appropriate, but ALPA is not the answer, nor will any union necessarily change things. Reality. And as has been pointed out, should a union show up and the company play hardball, it could be worse.