New Pilot Union Members Wanted
 

Has ALPA done anything to help the Pilots at Falcon Air Express get their membership process going yet. If not, Please help...

While I would love to see Falcon Air come into the fold, it is not up to ALPA National to Organize Falcon Pilots, it is up to Falcon Pilots to organize themselves, and once that occurs ALPA National can help.

What has your pilot group done to organize themselves? Pilot unity [see Spirit Airlines] and common cause is the first step before any [national] union will go the expense of circulating certification cards.

Where would they start the process? Seems a little disheartening that ALPA waits for people to come to them. An ALPA or IBT rep should go to them and spend a couple hours explaining the process of organizing the group and joining a union.

Start at Nationl ALPA, membership division; give them a call to see what is required.

I can tell you one thing that is required for ALP[A] to be interested . . . . MONEY.

From 2003 to 2005 I flew for Scenic Airlines (Twin-Otters, and at that time 121 ops).

We tried to get ALP[A] on property but we had less than 100 total pilots at that time. ALP[A] said they were not interested because we did not have enough dues paying pilots to make it worth their while.

Money talks . . . if it ain't talkin' loud enough ALP[A] could care less.

Spot on regarding ALPA's goal, money. Midwest Airline Pilots are the perfect example. Their scope clause crafted by ALPA national was cut through like butter. ALPA left Midwest pilots as soon as their dues "contingency fees" ran out.

As far as Scenic Airlines goes, ironically, that is where the great pooba of ALPA started, John Prater, president. John Prater worked at Scenic Airlines as a pilot. 10,000 cheeseburgers later must dull his memory of what it is like in a Cessna 402 with the door hanging open providing cooler air.

Time for a change, your body sheds its skin automatically, shedding your union is manual.

that's ALPA for you. I do think their new motto should read, "We won't help you until YOU help yourself!!!"

Maybe ALPA has changed its philosophy from when you were there, but ALPA currently represents several pilot groups with less than 100 pilots.

I disagree. Capital Cargo is a new ALPA member with just over 100 pilots. Colgan had 400 when we joined and that is 400 pilots paying 1.95% of crap wages which is not too exciting for ALPA National, same can be said about CommutAir with their pilot group size and wages.

ALPA National has been more interested in recent years in organizing smaller groups and not only caring about the money they can bring in. But of course the idea is to make a stronger national union which ALPA hopes will bring better contracts and in turn, make ALPA National more money.