No, I don't think so. They already violate the DFR by making mainline carriers subsidize the contract maintenance and enforcement and negotiations of the regional carriers.

ALPA just needs to use their horsepower within the executive council to come out with written policy that mandates the raising of the bar within the profession. If the regional pilots want logical and predictable career progression then they will support it too.

I have long been a proponent of a sub-group within ALPA that is the "Regional Airline Pilots Association." I would mandate that they be separate from a negotiating and enforcement stand point, both fiscally and organizationally, but they have full access to the rest of the ALPA tool box.

We simply can't allow the regional carriers to pull down the career progression and expectations of the entire profession with scope marginalization.

There is an internal conflict of interest within ALPA. Mainline pilots subsidize and fund the negotiations of regional carriers. Regional carriers are chasing the same revenue stream that mainline carriers do, therefore our dues money is being used against us. If regional pilots get bigger, faster, wider, and shinier jets than the mainline carriers do, then the revenue goes to them, and not the mainline carriers, therefore the moneys (airline revenue and pilot pay) goes with them. The percentage of dues paid to ALPA will be lower however because the pay at the regional will be lower. It's a lose-lose for ALPA. Not sure if ALPA realizes that.

The pilots thought otherwise by a huge margin. The problem is you and I probably have different ideas about what's wrong with the contract. Let's say you gets all of your fixes and I get none of mine, what did I gain? OTOH, $$$ are universal. Having said that, I too want a rewrite of a few sections rather than simply an extension this time.

That certainly has not been the case historically. The comair pilots made it known that they would not accept a staple under any conditions and would invoke ALPA merger policy.

That would make NO sense to not accept a staple job. If they left Comair to go to Delta, they'd be at the bottom of the list anyway. Instead they basically doomed themselves and now as those pilots get hired, they are behind the thousands of OTS hires that would have been junior to them if they had just accepted the staple job and started accruing mainline seniority. Maybe they could have kept their years of service. Instant huge pay raises, access to new equipment and bases, etc.

Its amazing how some pilots feel entitled to a specific position on another airline's pilot seniority list.

I think you are missing the key issue. Unions do not control or merge seniority lists. Management controls that. If management decides to merge with another airline you can't call them up and tell them you are stapling them. You have to follow either union merger policy or federal merger policy. Both almost always derive the solution from binding arbitration.
It is possible if your management will work with you to demand a prenuptial agreement. This is rare however and almost never happens. SWA and AirTran are a example of a union and management working together. They did not even try to impose a staple as they knew it would get overturned in court.

You are incorrect. There was never an offer to merge, staple, flow-through, etc. from CMR to DAL.

There were as many opinions about what to do as there were pilots.

My personal opinion (I was at CMR at the time, and an ALPA volunteer) from conversations with crews was the vast majority of us would’ve gladly taken a staple.

A rumor circulated at the time that it was DALPA who rejected the (never offered) staple because it meant their militaries buddies would get hired behind all of us.

Since you were with ALPA for CMR at that time, please explain your MEC's position that furloughed pilots from Delta at the time out of work were and should be required by CMR (the only regional to do so) to relinquish their seniority at Delta in order to take a job and feed their families by flying for CMR, the company that was growing by leaps and bounds as Delta parked many a domestic jet.

THAT point alone forever soured many a Delta pilot against the CMR MEC.

I was at the meeting when discussions were taking place about DALPA pushing management to merge Comair and ASA. Your MEC chairman made it clear that they would not under any circumstances accept a staple as a prenuptial and would invoke ALPA merger policy. Enthusiasm waned at the point on the DALPA side. The infamous furlough letter that followed killed what interest was left.
It was all a moot point anyway because management was never going to merge the airlines regardless of DALPA input.

Moot and now delta has closed both those airlines. (Save 20 crjs that fly for AA)

That was CMR managements position, not line pilots, nor CMR-ALPA. CMR management hired NO ONE who retained their seniority at another carrier. That included furloughed pilots from numerous other ALPA carriers, not just Delta.

I’d like to point out that DAL fully owned CMR and was able to direct management to hire furloughed pilots at any time. They (DAL management) chose not to. Management was the bad guy here, not pilots.

I, for one, supported hiring any qualified pilot. My seniority number at another carrier is none of managements business, IMHO.