If only this was true of mgmt as well as ALPA maybe it would be more of a level playing field.

This is pretty much the ONLY thing that needs to be said.

At every level EXCEPT the regional, that statement is true.

With regional management being at the whim of the legacies that STILL want cheaper feed combined with a lowest bidder principle it's really not that easy.

Sadly, the regionals are under pressure like you (and your dad) were during the bankruptcy. Sure, you can try to hold the line, but management can only do so much with what money they have, that the mainline pays them. For the regional management to tell the legacy that their costs are going up and need to be paid more would be like you telling management during the bankruptcy that you need more money, NOT LESS.

And a trickle down effect is this;

With the legacies hiring like crazy and some scope recapture (that we HOPE continues), ALPA National cares less and less what happens at the regional level.

ALPA National has displayed ZERO interest of late reduce/eliminate whipsaw amongst the regional groups.

With Obama in office, I don't think you'll ever see a more friendly president to organized labor, ever again... Kind of kills the argument of voting Democrat for labor eh?

Thanks for your input. So, basically our political lobbying power is greater as an association, but we're on our own when it comes to negotiating contracts etc. I just don't see how an association of unions (unions being created for an entirely different purpose) can be so weak and divided when it comes to negotiating. But if advocating safety is their main (and basically, only) function then boy, they sure do take and spend a lot of money to have a voice on capitol hill..

Mostly true. Although see above. National doesn't care much about lobbying on behalf of the regional groups. Safety, medical, other things, sure.

Again, mostly true.

Pre 9/11 the leapfrogging/"jacking up the house" of pattern bargaining was taking place. AWAC, Mesaba, ACA, ASA, Eagle, then ACA, AWAC each ratcheting up compensation and work rules at the regional level.

Post 9/11 that really hasn't happened on the same scale, if at all.

Certain regionals are getting better than what they individually had, they may not be raising the bar for all the other regionals providers like pre 9/11.

Except having a democratic, pro labor president means literally nothing when the legislative body is majority Republican and anti labor. The political leanings of a President matter incredibly less than people make it out to be.

Agree. Something like RLA relief will never make it to a floor vote in the House clean.

The only way the pilot community gets RLA relief is to get it into something like the transportation authorization/funding bills or perhaps traded for 1500 hour rule relief.

For the record, I don't really see what your point is. From what I understand, the RLA outlines a negotiation process and the NMB is used as part of that process. What does the RLA/NMB/Deregulation have to do with the size and unity of a union? Unions still exist, do they not?

The shortest and easiest answer is that under the Railway Labor Act striking is very, very hard to do and a strike can be vetoed by the government before it ever starts. It almost always is.

Allegiant pilots tried to strike earlier this year but were told they couldn't, even when the company blatantly disregarded NMB instructions as a middle finger to negotiations and pilots. The justification is that airlines are essential to national commerce and us greedy pilots would shut down the national transportation system at every opportunity for our own selfish benefit. Now consider: that was just Allegiant. If they won't let pilots stop a few flights from Missoula, Montana to Mesa, Arizona, imagine how resounding the NO would be to United pilots trying to strike, or somebody operating United's regional feed as de facto essential air service. Remember, half of all airline flights are flown by regionals now. Without the ability to strike - and management knows we can't - we have absolutely no leverage to negotiate or to even stop management from dragging out negotiations indefinitely.

I've read as much as I could find online about the RLA and efforts by ALPA relating to it. This thread also shed very little light on the subject.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/un...epeal-rla.html

If ALPA has done anything to repeal or amend the RLA, would you please tell us about it or reference where we could find more about it?

Great response, thanks.