Originally Posted by
4andCounting
In 2001, when I was at Piedmont (dch-8) they never made mesa stand up for a decent rj contract. So they allowed the fight to the bottom to begin on the rj front. the rj's were awarded to them instead of a wholly owned airline where the wages and benefits would have been tons better. I never got off reserve in over two years and got displaced 5 times in 13 months.
In 2004 when United went bankrupt I was at Air Wisconsin Airlines. Where was alpa national to fight the Startup Gojet and the nonunion carrier Skywest from undercutting our work and bypassing the transstates contract. I was displaced and we lost our industry leading contract.
In 2008 where were my alpa brothers at Delta and Northwest when they bought Midwest Airlines. It took Delta and republic just over 3 months to destroy us with no word or action from any branch of alpa (natioanal, DAPLA, NWALPA). Everyone at the company lost their jobs.
Now I'm at Virgin. I am loving my life, and have never been treated better. If ALPA ever shows it's face around here you have one guaranteed NO vote right here. Alpa is a farce of an organization. They don't stand for anything unless your are a top ten percenter at a legacy. There is no national voice, now common action. Just a bunch of selfish *******s trying to screw everybody else so they can keep whats "rightfully theirs". I am done hoeing the high road for a group of people that don't give one crap about me or my family. They have not done one thing that has benefited me in my whole ten years of dues.
You want insurance? Buy Aflac! Its cheaper!
Rant over...
-4
ALPA's plethora of highly paid staff need your dues dollars. Yes they provide some valuable services, I especially like the Aeromedical division as I know its been invaluable to some of my friends. That being said many of us still feel the sting from what I might describe as being/feeling as if we were shortchanged by ALPA. With all the attorneys on staff it still blows my mind that the majority of the language and negotiating is left to the individuals(pilots) from the locals. Most of which aren't attorneys and may never have negotiated a CBA before. So when I (and 400 others) lose our jobs, not because the company is no longer solvent, but because SECTION I-scope (why do you suppose its the first section?) is not worthy of being used as toilet paper, well then lets just say I have a problem with the representation these highly compensated individuals are providing me.
Then to add insult to injury we get to observe our "unionized brothers" (teamsters/fapa to be exact) waltz in and replace us one by one. That's got to be enough to make any labor leader roll over in their grave. Unionism in the piloting profession is a joke!
Yes we benefited from having a CBA, but in the end the most basic of reasons for having a union, job protection, was abrogated in this case. Certain posters can/will continue to waste their energy attempting to shame us for our non-union status. For most of us, this aint our first time at the rodeo. Some of us have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly side.