My comment was not anti-military. My comment was about the prior ALPA service. I (probably poorly) was trying to make the point that people who have served ALPA and their fellow pilots at a previous carrier have knowledge and understanding of the organization and the processes. A military pilot who chooses to do the same but starts at Delta has no experience in a union let alone serving in one. Both backgrounds can produce good and bad representatives. To say a representative from a regional who has experience with 121 operations and managements is some how not adequate for the job at Delta is ignorant. I have enlisted military experience, regional airline experience, union strike experience, and contract compliance experience yet I would make a terrible representative because my "vision" for the union doesn't align with the majority of the pilots. I'm too radical and think we are regularly eroding our PWA and the arbitration clause handcuffs our ability to demand enforcement. I would penalize non-compliance. All this is to say your ire should probably be directed at me, and that there is no military malice in my post. Drum on the other hand slammed regional airline ALPA experience as inadequate or detrimental. He is wrong, this may be the big leagues but the real fights are at the regional level.

 

Well, maybe(probably) I took the following quote too literally….(but it struck a nerve)


Nonetheless, I think most can agree that being a union rep is largely a “thankless” job….I am glad people step up to volunteer….that most things negotiated affect different Delta pilot sub-groups unevenly…and their job is to represent ALL pilots. A tough needle to thread indeed.
It’s all good.
Cheers

 

that was an observation that military pilots usually have no union experience when they get here, (again in response to drum’s assertion that regional union experience was worthless here) which unless they worked at a regional too is almost always true.




agree, it is a very tough job and you will never make everyone happy. Glad we have people who want to do it. as much as I would like to be more involved with ALPA, I’m not sure i would want that job.

cheers

 

We should be united as a pilot group, you say, after encouraging we "assail" our reps publicly because he only got 28% of the vote. That isn't how unity or unions work.