ALPA and the Regionals
 

Why are regionals represented by ALPA? How does a union represent pilots of an industry of lowest bidders that survive on undercutting? Wouldn't it be better for regional pilots to go on their own or not have a union at all?

What benefit is there of waiting 5, 6 years to get a contract? Being owned retro for years and years? If each regional had its own union, or no union at all, they could have had 2 or 3 separate agreements in the decade it would have taken to get 1 contract under ALPA representation. Sure the benefits and pay raises would have been not as good but at least you would have had something. You work for a regional after all, the whole point is to get something comfortable not anything leading the industry.

Under the RLA, the companies get away with not improving things for up to a decade. It's a joke. The only regional that had significant success under ALPA was Comair back in the day, and it turned out to be a disaster in the long run. Other cheaper ALPA regionals began to slowly replace their flying. Seems like dues are taken for ALPA services, but when it comes to regional pilot interests it's just lip service.

Maybe its not ALPA, its just unions that give management an out, because they don't have to negotiate unless a strike is confirmed and that could take years of waiting. I'm not anti union at all, I think unions are definitely needed where appropriate, like mainline because they affect the industry a whole lot more than any other regional. Management there would not doubt like to pay them regional pilot wages and that's unacceptable. But for those of us already at the regionals, maybe we can come to an agreement without waiting for years and years and years based on the RLA.

. . . this thread should get real interesting . . . :D

This the problem with the industry. I don't think anyone sets out to be a career regional pilot, but we are still professionals and should get paid accordingly. Managements like Mesa's, TSA, and even skywest are taking any chance they get to errode compensation and QOL.
I agree that ALPA representing regionals is contradictory, but unions are necessary to keep management accountable and honest. If mediorcracy is what you seek maybe a different career is what you need. Do you strive to be a so so pilot?

read the "delta pilot association" thread in the majors section...

and read up on the RJDC -- c. 2001.

then read the "comair updates" thread in the regionals section, especially the last few pages, and you will see somewhat of an insight into the demise of comair.

and then realise that you wouldnt have *half* the resources you have now under ALPA if your regional went at it alone... Think of the money ALPA gets from all the pilot groups combined... if any regional went at it alone and took 1.95% of everyone's pay, it wont add up to a whole heck of a lot! It is like the top 1% of this country paying 40% of total taxes... the country is better off! But if the bottom 50% who pay 3% of taxes wanted to start their own country, it would be horrid. Think about it...

Think about all the money wasted at ALPA headquarters in Herndon!

A number of airline pilots are members of independent associations and are doing just fine... Southwest, American, JetBlue, Frontier, UPS to name a few. ALPA National wants (needs) us to believe they have something special...

I haven't seen it.

ASA + XJT will be nearly 4000 pilots strong. There is no reason to continue to suck the breast of ALPA. In fact, an effort is underway to take it in-house.

ALPA works in much the same way as CAPA. DALPA, CALPA, FALPA, UALPA, etc are autonomous. They get together to form an association such as CAPA, and call it ALPA. The difference is that ALPA has many other resources that CAPA members purchase, such as aeromedical.

A lot stronger with ALPA then without, even with 7000 regional pilot group.


There is no conflict of interest in all airline pilots getting together to fight for the good of the profession where it really makes a difference, in the white house, congress, nmb, dot, faa, dhs, tsa, dol, courts, etc. The separate MECs will always deal with their own companie's internal issues and negotiations. Today's regional exist because of mainline pilots. And its mainline pilots who can change that. Its always been that way and will always be that way. As long as regionals exist the way they do today, there is nothing wrong with ALPA representing them or doing away with them.

Having been a committee chairman before for a regional, I can tell you we had a budget just in my committee about 5x what I would have if we were independent!

Also, the examples you gave all have a large percentage of their pilots making a significant slice more than regional pilots, therefore more dues money.

If you are at an airline with ALPA, I suggest you volunteer for a committee if you haven't already (the fact that you are even on here means you care even a little bit about your profession!:) ).

I am not saying ALPA is the end-all be-all, just saying it would be worse for a REGIONAL to go at it alone.

My 2 cents.