Just a piece of friendly advice, take it or leave it. Representation is unfortunately a must in this industry. Without it, management has shown they will not share the success, but will gladly share the pain of this industry.

Form your own independent union! You have to take leadership for yourself because you are the only one you can hold accountable. ALPA will take your money and tell you they cannot negotiate an impass or support a strike because of legal entanglements with other pilot groups. Teamsters Local 747 has a dozen people trying to manage its aviation responsibilities and is inept at it.

The most successful unions are the in house unions. SWA has SWAPA, UPS has IPA, American has APA (incidentally the only legacy carrier with A funds and pensions still intact,) and I am sure I am leaving out a few others.

NetJets pilots had Local 747 representing them and tried to break away after incompetent representation in 2004. After that, there was a deal made so that NJ pilots had their own local, Local 1108. Local 1108 was made up entirely of NJ pilots and without support of Teamsters International, greatly improved their contract in 2005. Again in 2007, NJ Local 1108 negotiated yet another greatly improved contract 3 years before the amendable date of the 2005 agreement. Teamsters International did not even know about the new contract until we told them. That's how involved they were. NJ pilots, after taking responsibility for themselves in 2005, have now made the break official. NJ pilots will be represented by an in-house union NJASAP after a representational election concludes this month.

Take responsibility for yourself. Keep your dues money local. Do not pay for Hoffa, Prater, or any of their high paid staff. All they do is take your money, live the high life, and tell you they truly want to help but there is nothing they can do.

Good luck and I wish ya'll well.

 

Darn, he's right. When I said "brass knuckles," I mean "bag tags." Fear the GREEN.
...although they do get pretty sharp if you break a corner off.

 

All the information you need to know about the teamster's motives and priorities can be obtained by considering gojet...

Teamsters jumped in to represent an alter-ego work force...gojet needed protection from alpa and possible forced integration, teamsters wanted dues.

 

You have obviously never worked for one of those regional airlines represented by the Teamsters. They are literally the worst airline union I've ever been witness to, but the Colgan pilots need to find this out for themselves. Don't listen to people on the internet, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

I suggest reading our lovely quarterly, and look at the PAGES AND PAGES of unresolved grievances.

 

The only defense I can give to this is that 747 refused to let them in. TEAMSTERS NATIONAL, on the other hand, did let them in. They joined local 618 which represents janitors in St. Louis.

What an insult to the janitors.

 

Colgan pilots, please look at the good examples of ALPA/management relationships such as XJT. If you are in doubt, ask a XJT pilot to see their contract. I will PM you it if you ask.

As I have said on your jumpseat, we need to stop doing each others job for less and we aren't going to help that by joining a different [truck drivers, GoJet] union just to prove a point. If we are all going to get ahead in this career, we need to be on the same side.

Group think people! We are stronger as a group, instead of undercutting each other.