Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
That seems a bit misleading to me. At Delta, I'm told we pay about $30 million annually in dues. About $21 million of it goes to ALPA National and $9 million of it directly supports the Delta pilots. I'm thinking you can hire a heck of a lot of top notch experts for $21 million dollars.
DAL88
You folks at Delta have 12,300 Pilots who are compensated on average Higher than your bretheren at Jet blue. You have a Contract and you have Agency Shop and you have had a Union on Property for 35 plus years.
The JB Pilots only number 2300. They won't come close to 10 million in Dues.
In fact being very optimistic that 100% of the JB pilots pay dues from day 1
(which is extremely unlikely) I estimate they would bring in approx 5 million
annually. Ask your MEC how much your Contract 2000 cost to negotiate.
Don't forget the your benefits from your SMRA Account and the Contingnecy Fund. A start up independent has none of that.
5 Million annually won't get you much in the way of an office, professional Staff and all the Legal help required, as well as all the cost of negotiations. I say that from first hand experience.
The JB pilots would be better off with economically ALPA than an independent
Unless they are willing to pay 4% initially over ALPA's 1.95%.