The opening statement of the Railway Labor Act states: The parties shall make and maintain agreements on working conditions and rates of pay. ALPA has not seen the inside of an APA contract in 57 years. Maintaining an agreement, requires an intimate knowledge of the negotiating history. It means having intimate knowledge of the prior grievance history over the language in question. The words on paper in a negotiated contract mean one thing but the actual history and prior rulings of arbitrators define what that contract actually means. Neil has been in negotiations and no doubt will be neck deep in the union if the membership adopts ALPA. You will not see a major change in personnel if ALPA comes aboard, they have to have the institutional knowledge ready to help out the boys from Herndon, when they move in.

APA is somewhat dysfunctional, but I have an earned 20 year ALPA pin in my desk drawer and ALPA can be just as dysfunctional. Neil is a great guy but he has never been in ALPA and Mitch is a smart guy but has very little experience with ALPA. I don't know about the others in that drive.

If APA goes ALPA it will be years before any meaningful change would happen. It will take a long time for ALPA to get up to speed. Members will get the slick, and most expensive magazine subscription in the United States. They will get a very good Safety and Training support product. In my opinion members will loose some very good APA aeromedical unless they negotiate to keep what they already have.

ALPA, in the long run could work for APA but to those who think it will make a difference to the company, it won't. It could be argued that APA is much more of an unknown threat to the company. ALPA would never have allowed the 1998 sickout staged by APA president LeVoy. The company got a Federal injunction and LeVoy ignored it. A Federal judge ordered APA to pay $45 million and APA didn't pay up. The parties were in mediated negotiations with Don Carty's management and LeVoy told Carty to simply add $45 million to what ever they agreed to. AA was going to pay the fine.

The APA response to what precipitated the sickout, the Reno Airlines integration, was so badly done by Carty that the AA board removed him several years later. Management was stunned by APA's response, it was a total communications and intelligence failure by the part of management. APA saw a major scope violation and declared war on the company. This was all in addition to his mishandling of post 9/11 issues that further angered the employees, like management bonuses when employee's were losing their jobs and the company was posting loses.

ALPA would never defy a Federal Judge, the first rule at ALPA is not "schedule with safety" but "Protect the Mother-ship." ALPA's first order of business is to protect ALPA.

I was an MEC member at Eagle during the bankruptcy. I can say without any reservation that we received more help from the APA fighting the concession demands than we got from ALPA. To drive that point home, I will add that it was ALPA went full tilt selling us the concessions, carrying the company’s threats of being the next Comair as real, so do it or be unemployed. THAT was ALPA. Eagle (now Envoy) management fired 4 union leaders repeatedly just to get them out of their hair or a few months each time. One guy was fired seven times before flowing, another twice, I was fired three times, and another guy fired once. That’s how they intimidate the union into not fighting too hard. ALPA did nothing but get the jobs back. If that had been the APA and they wrongly fired your union leaders the planes wouldn’t move the next day, and the company knows it.

ALPA has the resources and they obviously have been winning for their respective memberships.

APA defense is based on “maybe one day when we just vote the “right people” in it may happen.”

Before we all know it our careers will be over.

Yes, ALPA has done well at United and Delta. They have done well because they have been there since the days of the DC-6. SWAPA has done well for Southwest, they know the territory as does the IPA, at UPS. Longevity and negotiating history matters in negotiations.

APA can’t even make the company provide our contractually guaranteed crew meals

You call that a meal?

The old meals were a gourmet experience compared to the Gruben

Nope, that’s why I’m saying APA can’t even hold the company to a simple task like a suitable meal

Right? Dare I even say the Gruben and cheese is better than the snack box because at least it’s a meal (even though it’s not quite suitable)….

APA has been in place since 1963.

As Oliver Twist said, “Please sir, I want some More Gruel.”