That would be "yoke."

Now you've got egg on your face.

 

That may be a really good idea.

Doing the same thing over and over again is just nuts. We keep spinning our wheels and wasting time and money only to be out maneuvered.

My impression is that our lobby failed to convince the Obama administration that we represented the greater good. The other teams lobby convinced the administration that 100 thousand Jobs at Boeing would be in good shape if NAI got the nod. No one failed to mention that Boeing has already cut 150 thousand jobs over the last 20 years and outsources assembly as well as manufacturing. I guess the proposed Boeing plant being considered to be built in Asia probably won't go over well with Trump when he gets abreast of what Boeing is up to.

It may not be over so to speak. Trump knows a little about aviation, and the airline business as well as Boeing products. He hates NAFTA, and I think he's smart enough to know that Open Skies is just another NAFTA-SHAFTA. Maybe the younger crowd can get our union to change strategy and direction and maybe find a new voice. If not, another grass-roots group may be more effective. Nothing wrong with another organization forming for the purposes of advancing the causes of the professional aviator in the US. Maybe a pincer movement is what is required.

 

I am convinced that this and every other administration doesn't view airline pilots as "labor." Presidential administrations, I think, view us as highly paid professionals who happen to belong to a union for convenience. it's definitely more convenient to collectively bargain one contract as opposed to 50,000 separate ones. The traditional view of unions is that they represent blue collar working class folks.

If the democrats say they care about "labor." They aren't talking about airline pilots. They are talking about electricians, pipe fitters, and boiler-makers.

The President (R, or D) like the fact that pilots are in a union. They can be controlled and manipulated that way through their respective bureaucracies and can exercise greater control over us through the railway labor act. The President knows strikes are over in the USA for airlines, so our only real leverage exists in just plain disruption and chaos type events.

 

The PAC appears to be impotent to me. So, I would recommend we do something else. Something different.

We all pay allot of dues to ALPA, and that's fine. I know I've paid over 80K in dues in my career. Lots of pilots paying ALPA big money. Maybe ALPA could get it done with what we already pay them. I can't believe the NAI, a little ole no-body-nothing group of wanna-be's and posers out maneuvered the Airline Pilots Association, the largest and most powerful Airline labor union in the world.

It's OK to be PRO ALPA and pro something else besides the PAC.

 

However, if "right to work" becomes federal law we are just as screwed as the blue collar guys. We won't be carved out of any legislation. I hear your point on their ability to limit striking.

 

I believe there are legal limitations to using dues money for political action.

 

Not sure if you are aware, but dues do not fund the PAC. Im unsure if it's illegal to have dues in politics or if it's policy.

I don't think we were out maneuvered by little NAI, they had significant help from big bad Boeing who wanted the aircraft orders. Also the Norwegian CEO was an attorney involved in destroying the maritime industry. Not his first rodeo. He tries very hard to hide his involvement in that in interviews.

 

Yes and no. Dues money probably paid for the MEC to spend a month contemplating an email to send to the membership about how they support Hilary. Probably not ALPA-PAC money.

 

We are about to see why politics is so important to our prospects. Check out who the next DOT Secretary's father was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_S.C._Chao

 

Using regular dues for political purposes is illegal.