Originally Posted by
Luftwaffe
Have you shared that specific information regarding “the waste and abuse that continually gets a pass throughout the association” with your Delta pilot representatives??? The “same cadre of guys that are always in the limelight at alpa” are Delta pilots willing to do the work that you are not, because you would rather fly airplanes. It would be nice if everyone could just fly airplanes and no one had to do the work, but that certainly is not the case. Sometimes the work has to be done even when it isn’t fun. Believe it or not, Delta pilots are your union and your representatives. ALPA Int’l is a resource that Delta pilots use. There is NO cushy gig, and perhaps you would know that if you ever had volunteered for something. The fact is, it is all about volunteering, whether it’s to represent, work on a committee, or take your personal extra time to show up to a meeting. That won’t change even if you prefer to make the change to another union that has no resources.
I see you and T2 have something in common: you both prefer to paint with broad brushes. Many ALPA volunteers are temporary volunteers, many are life-long technocrats that play a very useful role, and some are leeches. The act of volunteerism, noble as it is, does not consider motive. Some "volunteer" to support self-interest.
This is why an active, involved membership is key: it's all in the adult supervision. This is also why I wouldn't support DPA: there is no reason to think this pilot group, which is fairly apathetic now, would supervise DPA any better than it suppervises ALPA. And if the group that wants to promote DPA gets serious enough, then one would think it would translate into presence at local meetings, to promote whatever values they want to promote. IOW, if they got active enough to push a DPA through, they would be active enough to clean up whatever needs cleaning up in the union, and a DPA would not be needed.