Someone mentioned you can pay dues by bill instead of dues check off. Is there a way to pay with Credit Card so I can get my hotel points since I don't get any points when I stay at hotels? At least I could get something out of ALPA.

Hadn't heard that. I guess as long as they don't paint "Delta" on the side of any Airbuses life is good.

And there are also many pilots who have raised their hands to do the work and been ignored because they have ideas that stray from the status quo.

There are also many good volunteers that have been run off after the merger for the same reason. The same seems to be occurring in Herndon now as well. Of course a system where the Chairman get's to hand out committee positions and flight pay loss as reward for servitude and compliance creates a self-perpetuating system that is not open to new ideas or honest debate. I find it a little odd most of those run off were former NWA

http://stopheroin.webs.com/Visine%20Bottle.jpg


As to a cushy job, no, however the hard work that is done by volunteers does not warrant "bonus" pay opportunities, all while not flying and having weekends and holidays off, not open to line pilots with the same seniority.

http://absolute-truths.com/wp-conten...2/fat-cat2.jpg

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.

I don't dispute any of that.. to a point. Fact is, they DO get paid. SOme even get a retirement... They ain't doing this for free... And I have volunteered before.. but was rebuffed. If you have ever read any of my posts on the matter you would know this... I hate to even bring it up. Why does LM not have to take his POV to DC when he moves up there? That is the kind of waste I am talking about. You can get a really nice car for what we are springing for his lease... which if you have any common sense you would know is a total waste of money.... leasing a depreciating asset.. good use of our dues.... :rolleyes:

I agree with that, but motives are elusive at best. Some however do support Delta pilot’s interest at large and self-service becomes evident fairly quickly.

As a south guy, I find this exceptionally insulting. Please stop

That is an excellent point.

So where do we go from here?

I'm not quite sure whether you're concerned about guys riding the gravy train, or bemoaning the notion that Northwest guys are getting booted off the train. I had a (Delta) buddy that was fairly close to the action at the time of the merger, and he explained to me that NW had quite the fiefdoms going on. I understand some of the guys were well in their second decade, and some didn't have medicals to fly the line.

As a line pilot, I have little or no awareness about what's happening in Herndon. I assume this is a reference to Moak. I don't doubt that Moak eventually got to a point where he controlled committe appoitments closely. In fact, the charge against his predecessor was that he stacked committees with cronies, and would not answer to the MEC, that brought him to power. Now I'm being told the new guy answers better to the MEC, and maybe Moak didn't.

You know what I think? They all like to stack committees with cronies, and they'll all get there, given enough time. Much of what I see is a self-perpetuating system, and the only fights I can discern are those between individual factions to determine who will get to ride. I'm not moved very much when I read passionate pleas for putting better people, or creating redundant MEC structures, or perpetuating the paranoid World of Roberts that (I'm told) you lived under. I know it's a popular view to say that you had delightful, open, lively debates that were the hallmark of democracy. I've heard many wax poetic about what a quaint era that was, but when you speak to people in private, it sounds like it was the same ugly kind of knife-fight you see in jail documentaries.

So I couldn't care less about the color of the people getting botted off, because I think this whole thing rides on pilot participation. If the pilots don't show up at meetings, we're [****]'ed.

Why, that's easy, we start going to... the LEC meetings.

I know we've had this debate already, and you think ALPA is stalling WRT labor laws and webcasting, but it sort of makes sense to me we shouldn't have meetings recorded and available to the company.