And if FedEx wasn't profitable?
So what you're saying is that you think a union should be able to get you massive pay raises even when a carrier is losing massive amounts of money and slipping towards liquidation? Get real.
ALPA produces results when it's possible to produce results. Had FedEx not been ALPA, then they wouldn't have gotten as good a contract in '06. Companies don't just hand over money to employees when they turn a profit, you have to fight for it.
I'll go so far as to say an in-house Union at FedEx would have gotten similar results.
The FDX pilots know better than you. They decertified ALPA in the early '90s because they thought they could do better themselves, and they created their own union called the FPA. After a few years of FPA failure, they realized that they had made a big mistake and voted in record numbers to bring back ALPA. They've had some of ALPA's highest approval ratings ever since.
Seemed to be pretty good right up to about the point of deregulation (Co-Authored by pro-labor Teddy Kennedy) Is the US Government beholden to the 60,000 or so ALPA pilots...or the remaining 300m citizens? ALPA's voice is but a whisper among the screams on Capitol Hill...but you won't hear this at any pro-ALPA Union Drives.
And despite your pessimism, ALPA produces results on Cap Hill. ALPA actually has the biggest PAC in the airline industry. ALPA contributes more money to politicians from ALPA-PAC than the ATA does.
Don't forget to give him credit for Comair's paycuts...Pinnacle STILL not having a contract...that abortion Mesa pilots call a "T/A", etc, etc, etc.
CMR - What don't you understand about bankruptcy?
PCL - You vote for Bush, you suffer the consequences of an anti-labor NMB. Things are about to change.
MAG - I think they got a pretty good deal. An 18 month agreement that fixed some of their biggest problems they had in their contract during a period of time when most people were expecting the company to file Chapter 7. Now they're only a year away from negotiations again under the Obama NMB when their company will likely be doing better. Smart strategy. I'm not surprised that you're not bright enough to understand that, though.
Age 65 happened on his watch...but I know what you're going to say...there were bigger organizations pushing for it.
No, that is one of the missteps that I referred to. I've always disagreed with Captain Prater about Age 65.