We didn't this time because the political winds changed. It's that simple, and that's what happened from my understanding. And you're right that there were pilots who lost their pensions and who were applying political pressure to their Congressmen to get the rules changed. So was Southwest's Union. That all comes into play.
As pilots, we're black& white people. Here's a problem. Fix it. Go to the next problem. Politics isn't like that at all, and I don't think the typical pilot understands that. ALPA can't just beat its chest and stomp its feet on this issue when key players that were on our "team" changed sides under external pressure. Continued fighting was not politically possible or wise considering the interests of the membership. Simply put, if ALPA's argument continues to be, "not even no, but hell no" we would be excluded from the rule making process. As sometimes happens in politics, our leaders had one of two bad choices to make. One, "hell no" and be excluded from the political process and possibly damage sensitive political relationships that we might need in the future. Also, keep in mind that the will of the majority of pilots was to take part in the rule making process if Age 60 becames a lost battle. Or two, "yeah we don't like this rule change, we continue to protest it but this is what we need in the rule making to make it much more palatable." Both choices suck for me, too, but I understand why ALPA National did what they did after making my own effort to contact my reps and find out what really happened.
And frankly, I don't buy the anti-ALPA guys who say ALPA is only interested in "dues money." Like there's this huge conspiracy to suck in as much dues money as possible to fuel the machine and screw everything else. The problem with conspiracy theories are they're almost impossible to disprove. All I can say is that as I become more involved in ALPA, I've had a better look behind the curtain, warts and all. I have never heard anyone EVEN ONCE say anything about needing to do X,Y, or Z because it brings in more dues. Sorry, I don't buy the argument that the Age 60 rule changed because ALPA wants more dues money. But of course, like almost all conspiracy theories, I can't disprove it.
There's my opinion, take it or leave it. If fellow ALPA members at least read what appears to be my dissenting opinion and at least tried to perhaps contact their leaders to find out what really happened and they still believe ALPA screwed them, then so be it. At least they took the time to investigate on their own and formulate their own opinion instead of making a rash, emotional judgement. I'll just have to agree to disagree with those people.
