Haha. That made me laugh. Of course 'XYZ Airlines' is not going to organize ALPA just to get CrewPass benefits, but it's a matter of non-ALPA groups riding the coat tails and benefitting from ALPA-implemented improvements for the industry. Sooner or later it seems as messed up as the current welfare assistance system/program. i.e. We work and pay while others don't and benefit just the same... maybe a bad analogy, but it's the same concept. We're all pilots, union or no/different union, and we all need to stick together either way to stop the degradation of the career and contribute to advance collectively.

I like idea of coupling CASS to the verification process. That's already in place and most carriers DO pay for it already.

 

Riding coat tails?? With all due respect, ALPA is not the messiah of airline pilots. In a few ways, ALPA is a recipient of your analogized welfare assistance. Sure, they have done some good and "represent" (I use that loosely) more pilots than any other association or union. Sure, they took the lead with CrewPASS. However, there are lots of other larger fish to fry.

I don't see a clear net benefit anymore than other labor groups representing pilots. Just look at some of the other independent associations that have better contracts than most ALPA carriers. i.e. SWA is just fine without ALPA.

Frankly, your implication that ALPA is the preeminent organization representing airline pilots is arrogant at best.

 

To each their own, I'm not being arrogant - just stating the obvious with this whole deal. I'm not an ALPA trumpeter by any means, as the strength of a union truly comes from the membership, not necessarily National. But the resources to affect change with issues like this body scanner deal and the need for CrewPass are evident. If ALPA and other independant unions came together to affect change for all of us, then we'd be that much at an advantage as pilots collectively, whether pro-union or anti-union.

I seem to remember seeing an ALPA logo on the laptops being used by TSA at the CrewPass checkpoints for the test airports... please tell me if I was hallucinating. If it were IBT rallying for CrewPass initially, I'd hope ALPA would show support at the national level. Do we see the same now?

The SWA contract is great... but I don't know enough to comment on how SWA got to where they are. With that, enough of the usual ALPA sucks discussion, back to the issue at hand please.

 

Just another data base to add to the existing one.