Financing negotiations, providing legal assistance, medical assistance, affordable life and loss of licence insurance for for people who operate vehicles at high rates of speed and whose career is over if their body can't regulate blood sugar properly, government influence for safety and security issues. Nothing important I guess.

 

Lee Moak threatened the Eagle MEC during the B-scale fiasco. Fortunately they didn't give in.

However, ALPA national was creaming their pants when PSA signed an agreement that undercut Eagle and the rest of the industry.

The only threats that should have been leveled were at PSA and US Airways management.

This everyone for themselves mentality and "eat your young" that ALPA national supports is the biggest barrier to better contracts. There should be a minimum contract standard and instructions from National to all carriers not to accept concessions at all.

Instead ALPA National is more concerned with protecting their cushy 500K year a jobs then defending the carriers they are supposed to represent.

 

I think a better future is seeing those 10,000 regional pilots start to get more union leadership positions and change ALPA from the inside, which would be WAY easier than first decertifying ALPA and starting from scratch. If all these future former regional pilots are too lazy to decertify and start from scratch now, what makes you think they'll starting having the time and energy when they're finally making the big buck and actually have the QOL and income that affords a real life?

While I can agree that ALPA has not been the greatest in having a grand unified strategy in dealing with compensation at all levels of the 121 industry, the behinds scene work they do in safety, legal, and aeromedical work is priceless. Heaven forbid any of us ever need this kind of support:

 

Anybody who has "served" will tell you that changing ALPA from the inside is an impossible task.

 

I volunteer and I disagree.

 

Well there's at least one person who's disagreed with you on that point, so I guess that invalidates your statement.

Like you said, thousands and thousands of regional pilots are going to become legacy and major pilots over the coming decades. I for one hope that brings some change to the organization.

Semi related, it would be phenomenal if the APA, USAPA, IPA, FAPA, Teamsters 747, etc didn't exist and all 121 pilots were under one Union umbrella, whatever that looked like (and for the record I'm in favor of a future ALPA that actually has a plan).

 

Ever hear of CCAir?

And for the record, no contract or LOA is valid until the President of ALPA signs it.

 

So enlighten us how you changed ALPA during your term. This should be good.

 

Don't get too confident. The same weak MECs that allow these contracts to be voted on by their membership also cast votes for the President. Line pilots don't get to. Talk to your reps, and take note of how they vote. If they don't vote as their constituents want, they should be recalled.

The real pilots to blame for our current situation is the PSA NC and MEC, and the same parties at ASA. Neither one of those deals should have made it to the pilots.

Obviously Parker and other management types are to blame as well, but no one held a gun to the MEC's head and forced them to put these TAs out for a vote. That was their decision and their decision alone. The koolaid drinkers at PSA should be recalling their MEC but instead they are viewed as heroes for securing growth airplanes. I doubt anyone at ASA will be up for a recall either. Too many apathetic pilots who won't do the leg work for the recall process.

When no one is held accountable, nothing will change. Guys will chat in the jet way about how mad they are, but until the guys who are ushering in these deals are recalled and booted out of their jobs, these types of things that will continue to happen. People need to start caring about who they're elected reps are; know what they stand for. Most guys are elected via a process that 25-50% of the pilots participate in. Then these guys appoint your negotiating committee. The apples don't fall far from the tree, so start paying attention to who is running for a rep/lec position.

 

By that, do you mean that each MEC has a national attorney? That's true, but they're only there to make sure what you negotiate is legal. They don't offer any advice.

MECs use accounting and retirement insurance experts, but again, they're only there for fact checking and comparison.

The people who negotiate your contract and who vote on it being sent to the pilots are the MEC and the NC that they appoint. No one else.