As long as enough people believe that ALPA is a business and not a union, then the long it will behave like one and, consequently, be less effective as a UNION.

The money side of ALPA is both necessary and slightly embarrassing. Tracking down deadbeats is good, but most often is it simply an oversight by the member. During the 2001 Comair strike, I missed one $10 assessment and didn't know it until I couldn't log into the ALPA website any more. A phone call to Herndon answered the question of why and I followed it up with a check. I'm a volunteer too and have been one for over 5 years when that happened. The debt collection side of ALPA has no sense of humor.

Still, if someone is advocating we ditch unionism because of this matter or that making deadbeats pay up is a bad think, I'd love to hear their reasoning on why they think it should be so.