It’s amazing how my question about union dues got turned into a scab witch hunt! You guys crack me up! More dramatic than my 7th grade niece. Please never change! Some of you guys would make great politicians 😂😂😂

 

What you write here doesn’t mean squat. Write a resolution and take it to a union meeting.

 

That 30 year old will likely make $8,000,000 over the course of their career, let's round the higher fees up to a $100,000 and you're worried about 1.25% of that career earnings? I know pilots are cheap, but come on now.

Nevermind the fact that the union workers are paid via the exact same salaries so if the cost to pay them goes up 30% it seems like the dues going up 30% makes sense.

 

I am convinced!!! You guys are all correct! The Union that brought us the Tumi TA definitely deserves a raise! Steak and lobster for everyone!

 

They got recalled.... new union officers..

 

I wish I was as optimistic as you.

 

I’m happy to be a member of ALPA, and happy to pay my dues and to be in good standing. To the above point, math doesn’t lie, and the union will in fact get a raise from us that coincides with whatever raise we get. Whatever, no drama there.

As a separate point, part of my dues are stated to fund contract negotiations and maintenance. In fact I believe this specific percentage can be found by looking at whatever ALPA charges non-union members for these very services. With this information we can with pretty decent accuracy find out what we as members have paid ALPA to negotiate our contract to its current state over the last 10 years… I’m guessing we have paid 10s of millions of dollars (perhaps $100 million+) to get to the position we are now, which is to say basically the same position on the date of signing of our last contract.

 

You understand that trip loss pay becomes more expensive too….right? By far, the union’s biggest expense.

 

The part of this discussion not mentioned, and the one no one likely knows much about including myself is the ALPA budget. Would I like lower dues? Of course. I'd also like lower taxes. The trouble is one can eliminate all the extra programs and entitlements from government, and you still won't balance the budget because of the big 5: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, and Interest expense. Those 5 are roughly $5 trillion out of a $6 trillion dollar budget and we take in taxes of $4 trillion. So where to cut? I'm sure the same question would apply to ALPA. I have no facts, but my guess is ALPA runs fairly lean when taken from a big picture view. I'm sure one could kind find instances of excess as one can in the Federal Budget, but the fact is the primary programs drive the costs.

Looking only at the income side of the budget is only half the equation. Before advocating for lower dues, you need to first demonstrate where ALPA is spending too much.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying dues couldn't be lowered; I'm just saying I would need more facts to come to that conclusion.

 

I actually do understand it, because I’m not a moron.

It is still a fact that dues will increase the same amount of our raise. And since ALPA’s expenses include things other than trip loss, their net books balance will almost certainly also increase.