IIRC, when FedEx went closed shop... there were quite a few non members who owed lots of money. Its always about the money with the non members...

Supposedly.... a non member said to ALPA guy... you can't fire all of us non members!!

ALPA guy replies... you're right... one of you will get fired and everyone else will rush to pay up!!

FX guys... correct as needed...

 

Just to Clarify: Closed Shop vs Agency Shop

FDX Pilots went from No Union to ALPA, to an In House and then returned to ALPA.

Under ALPA 1 we had no contract. Under FPA we got our First Contract. Under ALPA 2 we got our 2nd and we got an "Agency Shop" clause.
Agency shop requires all members of craft and class (all pilots on Seniority list) to pay a contract administration fee, which is equal to normal dues + or -. They are not required to be Members of the Association. IOW, they can remain Non members if they choose but must pay a monthly fee. Under these terms, a member of class and craft can be terminated if he/ she doesn't pay the contract administration fee. I really do not know if any of our Pilots were terminated for this.

A Closed Shop requires all craft and class members to " Join " the association as well as pay dues. IOW there cannot be any Non members, except those in Management.

The rub at FDX was any NON Members at the time of the ALPA 2 contract signing were " Grand fathered" as non members and were not subject to Agency shop. Several of these pilots finally saw the light and did join. Most, however, stayed Non members and didn't pay anything and retired as non members.

It wasn't like a Non member was terminated and there was rush to the ALPA door to join.

Currently, according to our NM list, there are about 50 nonmembers left who are not paying. That number was closer to 400 when the 2nd contract was signed in 2002.