Poll Question:

Is ALPA representation in the best interests of Regional Airline Pilots?

(screen names are hidden)

Answer Yes if you believe ALPA is the way to go for Regional Pilots.

Answer No if you believe another organization (Teamsters, private label, etc..) would better serve the interests of Regional Airline Pilots.

 

There will never be an association that will meet pilots expectations. The representative body is an easy place to lay blame for pilots that have overblown expectations or that are unhappy with how things have turned out. Fact is, we all made a choice to engage in this profession. Because it hasn't turned out like you thought, doesn't mean there are people behind the scenes actively trying to ruin your sad little life.

Teamsters would come into a regional and pilots would say they are selling us out to protect the truckers. It would be the same old story. Decertifying and then enlisting another only changes the label on the box. Quit trying to place your excuses for your current state in life on others. You can't make the market behave like you think it should.

What about a National list? How many of you kids will bring in the next furloughed pilot group with their date of hire? What if he is senior to you? Bold talk here on the boards but outside this medium, the vast majority of you would be losing your minds.

Oh yeah... First!

 

Disagree. Management does this all the time.

Do you support continued wage sanctions on a group of professionals who are clearly in great demand?

Should free market forces continue to be disallowed in favor of manipulation by legacy management, National, RAA, scope provisions?

Pilots could control every aspect of their market value with effective representation.

 

Who are you talking too?

 

Seems like some things are taken for granite though, I am sure mgmt would try to auction off the captain upgrades every month if it weren't for organized labor.

 

You could bring in the Kiwanis Club bingo team and get better representation than with alpo.

 

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"
Winston Churchill

ALPA was formed for the same reasons that the UAW, UMW, Teamsters, and all the other "legacy" unions were formed: to try to stop workers from being no more value than a piece of machinery.

ALPA pilots first fought for safety, then a living wage and job security.... As did most of those other unions.

As the industry changed, ALPA had to adjust to new pressures. Were those adjustments (in HINDSIGHT) the best? Probably not. But they were, in most cases, the best guess anyone could make.

I am not defending the bad decisions that ALPA has made, but to paraphrase Churchill, no one pretends that ALPA is perfect or all-wise. But having ALPA is far better than having no union.

Remember, those guys in the 20s and 30s that formed the unions were first trying to protect themselves. After that, they were trying to protect those who came after. Like it or not, Unions protect the most senior members... just as many cultures give the first born the lion's share of the legacy.

IF you feel your union leadership is not acting in your best interest, vote them out. BUT realize if you are a 20something expecting to be in a widebody, and having your union get you that seat, in 30 years there will be a bunch of 20 somethings who expect the same thing.

 

This is coincidental, but here is a thread going on in the Majors section where an argument is being made that ALPA is not in the best interests of Regional pilots.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ma...ml#post1661556