Originally Posted by
gettinbumped
I diverge with you a little bit about ALPA. The cynical side of me says that ALPA will easily "change sides" to whatever area shows growth potential. They certainly didn't have any real reaction to watching 10's of thousands of good mainline jobs go to the regionals, so I suspect that they wouldn't mind a number of them going back. Along those lines, I don't see how ALPA has a say even if they WERE interested in protecting their regional members from furlough. We've had a front row seat for how effective they have been at stopping mainline furloughs. ALPA National doesn't negotiate our scope or our contract. They sign the deal at the end, and I'm sure that Scope tightening wouldn't keep them from putting the ink on the paper.
Time will tell how successful we are at getting scope reigned back in, but for the first time in a decade, I believe we have something that management wants. I like the way this is headed. Let's get our 1500 back flying UNITED jets, no matter how many seats they have in them.
We are all watching to see how it works out regarding scope. If the United Pilots are unable to make significant inroads regarding scope, I think ALPA is done as a Major Union. I am a bit cynical in what National feeds our Reps. They go in with the best intentions and come out singing a National tune. I sincerely hope UAL proves me wrong. Best of luck getting the 1500 back. I have been in the same boat once but not twice, like many UAL pilots. We should have been much more successful at Delta when we had significant leverage during joint contract negotiations.