nerd2009

Recently the airlines adding to the growth of ALPA National are Regional airlines, and not Major airlines.
In my opinion, over time, ALPA National's Board of Directors will, eventually be controlled by the MEC's of Regional Airlines, and I don't think that can be good thing.

Jake Wheeler

Who cares? ALPA is fading fast. Delta is already talking about breaking away. USAirways, American and Southwest have their own unions. Having a national union makes it hard to cross picket lines. It's easier when two different airlines are different unions.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ma...mp-alpa-2.html

Check Essential

Not a good thing if you're a major airline pilot.
The two groups have diametrically opposing interests and goals.
Even before numerical "control" has passed, we're seeing the effects. ALPA National is overseeing and facilitating the slow transfer of jobs from one group to the other.

blastoff

No. Ultra-senior pilots at Legacy Carriers do, and are loving watching the junior pilots at their companies deflect the blame on regional pilots.

See: Age 65, Scope, B-scales. Everything we've lost has been voted away to benefit the super-senior.

slowplay

So explain to me the logic of a union facilitating the transfer of jobs from a higher paying dues structure to a lower paying dues structure?

You might want to look a little deeper than the non-sensical argument you made above.

Check Essential

I never said it was logical. Just looking at facts on the ground.
(or in the air, as the case may be)

I say "facilitating" based on the inexorable relaxation of scope clauses over the last decade.
Again, facts on the ground.

Regarding the dues structure - ALPA National doesn't care. Why? Because 2 RJ pilots making $75K a piece pay the same dues as one mainline pilot making $150K. ALPA collects the same either way.
They may even come out ahead as the nation's air transport infrastructure shifts to airframes that are smaller and more numerous. More crews are required to move the same number of pax. The trade-off is greater than 2 to 1 and actually results in higher dues income

RedeyeAV8r

Yeah and I am sure those Super Senior Pilots at USAir, UAL and Delta (NWA and CAL HAL just couldn't wait to have their great "former" contracts chainsawed by a Bankruptcy Judge and have their Pensions distress terminated. Note sarcasm here.

STILL GROUNDED

For years regional airline pilots have paid dues to ALPA and ALPA has in turn done nothing to improve the industry at the regional level or for the regional pilot. They should have taken the lead to make sure that mainline scope was stronger and that it wasn't cheaper to use a regional. Instead they just took the money of the regional pilot then stood inline to wait their turn at the mike to publicly bash regional airline crews and training when something went wrong. Had they stood up for the contracts of dues paying regional airline pilots they may not be flying 50% of the flights and they majors may not be degenerating to nothing.

I agree it won't be good if ALPA is controlled by regional pilots but it hasn't been good for anybody when the leadership has continually ignored the regional airlines and only focused on what is best for themselves right now. We've all been sold out with the future by personal greed!

blastoff

Sarcasm noted...Senior pilots have still voted away all of those things over the last 25 years, on top of what has been hacked away by Bankruptcy. Funny this should come from a guy represented by Group A at the MEC. Group A (CAL, DAL, UAL, FedEx) gets 5 Exec VP's, while the remaining 5 groups get 1 each. There's the answer to the Thread's Title question.

Group Airlines
Group A* Continental, Delta, FedEx, United
Group B1** Air Wisconsin, Comair, CommutAir, ExpressJet, Midwest, Trans States
Group B2** American Eagle, ASTAR, Pinnacle, PSA, Ryan
Group B3** Atlantic Southeast, Capital Cargo, Colgan, Evergreen, Mesa Air Group, Piedmont
Group B4** Alaska, Island Air, Hawaiian, Mesaba, Spirit, Sun Country
Group C*** Air Canada Jazz, Air Transat, Bearskin, Calm Air, CanJet, Kelowna Flightcraft, Wasaya