As a post merger hire, and retired military myself, I think the good Colonel is an outlier. No other new hire I know feels that way and only 1 CA I have flown with, a scab, has said they were ok with a scope giveaway. Perhaps my retired Airline pilot father in law, perhaps good mentoring since getting hired, perhaps watching my airline friends suffer through the lost decade, or perhaps my Navy background makes me more hardcore on scope. Any scope give means I will end my career where it started in a narrow body body right seat.
Fully prepared to personally lead a recall of any Union Leadership who gives on a Scope.
On the other hand I think this issue is a planned distraction. Company knows we are not going to compromise, and exactly why. Holding the line is not a win, it is a given. I think they are after other things, namely code share and non union contractors in TK. Look at how Fedex ALPA got so scope locked on holding their pension they paid little attention to lots of other details in the contract. Now they are dealing with those details, AND now their MEC is coming back with a pension giveaway proposal.

Bottom line you gotta keep the eye on the ball. And scabs.

Curious as to what the general view of those coming here with a corporate 91/135 background?

I came from a corporate background excited that people would have my back. In corporate you were totally on your own and often pitted against one another. I have been very pleased by the efforts of my union (3 years on property). I am a firm "No" to scope concessions BTW.

I personally don’t care what a guy’s background is as long as we don’t spend three days trying to make the wheel rounder. Do it like everyone else does, fly the contract, go home, and cash check. Repeat.

Sounds like desk jockey material. If he was an O-6, that's likely where he's spent the last 10 years anyway.

Zoomie is derived from the AFA's nickname, the 'Blue Zoo'. Shorthand is Zoomie.

The Blue Zoo comes from the noon meal formation where the squadrons marched on the terrazzo past the viewing wall behind the AFA cathedral. Visitors to the Air Force Academy would gather at the viewing wall and watch the cadets march past it. … the cadets are on view for the visitors.

Company man, zoomie, ltcol, army, navy, AF, corporate, whatever. If you haven’t worked at an airline during an economic downturn you have no idea how expendable we and our benefits are. As Reagan’s corollary says, a receding tide lowers all boats—and makes most discover their inner unionist. And with a $T added to the debt every year going forward the big one is coming.

PS, a Lieutenant Colonel is not an “O-6”

Not the first mil new hire with any big airline connections to give him a clue about his new career.

Most mil airline pilots I know figure out pretty quick the importance of our union and that being an airline pilot is the easiest money they’ve made.

Not sure you were here for LEAP training but doubt it was mil guys that fed that requirement.

How exactly would a prior career at say Skywest, Gojet or (insert cheapest bidder Express undercutter du jour) give you such a high horse to ride to being a staunch union stalwart? I know many mil guys who’ve been furloughed at least once that would think you may be the one needing the long lasting mentoring.

Because many at the regionals have seen the downside of outsourced flying by being whipsawed against each other for 20 years. I think most folks at the regionals want to see flying returned to mainline, however ther is almost nothing we can do about it at the regional level. unfortunately, if your not a zombie ( sticking with the word of the thread) you are probably going to have to start at a regional today because scope we a given up in the past. so I'm not really sure where your last sentance is going

It's a double-edge sword here. Here's what I mean. On the one hand the company HATES, and I mean HATES military people because they take too much military leave and it messes up their PBS wet dreams when they put in MLLV past the so-called PBS deadline, but on the other hand they LOVE, and I mean LOVE military people because they are black and white. They are mission oriented people and they see the company (ie commander's) point of view before any other.

If the Commander says, this is the plan, the mil guys buy-in.

What really needs to take place here is the military laison committee at ALPA needs to do a better job of educating the military community as to the long term benefits of holding the line on scope. Pilots, to include military guys and gals all tend to see the shiney ornaments on the Christmas tree first. They may miss that lump of coal in their stockings...… Scope relief is that lump of Coal that we wouldn't begin to be able to quantify for another ten years. Heck, we've just now figured out and cracked the code on scope relief on the CAL and UAL side post 9-11 within the last 2 years.

Go ask an over 40 ten year Captain, and 10,000 hour RJ pilot what he feels about scope and scope relief. I'd bet dollars to donuts he gets it, and he's not an O-5 with either a full AD, or guard pension. Heck, he probably doesn't even have a pension or retirement yet.

That’s a nice generalization, and surely a few bad apples can ruin a bunch, but over the last 15 years many of us flew with guys furloughed from *pick an airline* or got out at the wrong time and couldn’t get a job. Those guys who either came crawling back to our active duty squadrons or were fortunate enough to have Guard and Reserve units to help them through the bad times. Those are the same guys who mentored we young LTs on both the realities of the AF and the 121 world.

Now in a leadership vacuum, you have folks fleeing the mil like rats off a sinking ship and are pretty fed up with emptyleadership promises who are landing all across the airlines. I don’t think what you’re describing is something you’ll find in that group, the 30-something O-3/4s, and it’s a far larger group than the retired O-5/6 bunch. It ain’t your dads Salute Smartly and Carry On AF.

And to your point on the committees educating folks, I think it’s a solid idea. The mentors here should also reach out to their folks and discuss this since that’s something that can happen now with little coordination.