Alpa President John Prater's Video Response To Age 60

[ToThePain]

I also have to agree with Rez. I emailed form letters to all of my CAL classmates who all were strongly against changing the retirement age to 65 in addition to giving them their Senators email addresses. Unfortunately only one took action. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. The older pilots who pushed for the change actually pushed, the younger ones are generally apathetic and can't see beyond the next 3 years the long term (and devastating) effects the change will have on the industry, junior pilots in the industry and furloughed pilots.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

I also have to agree with Rez. I emailed form letters to all of my CAL classmates who all were strongly against changing the retirement age to 65 in addition to giving them their Senators email addresses. Unfortunately only one took action. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. The older pilots who pushed for the change actually pushed, the younger ones are generally apathetic and can't see beyond the next 3 years the long term (and devastating) effects the change will have on the industry, junior pilots in the industry and furloughed pilots.

The new generation of pilots have been defined on this message board...



Education and flight training paid for + Desire for immediate max days off and pay = Sense of entitlement


From Flying the Line, Vol. 1, page 227:

Inevitably, a new generation arrived made up of pilots less steeped in the past struggles and more content about the professional status ALPA had created for them. The new generation was also increasingly indifferent to ALPA and its administration. Pioneer pilots, by and large, paid close attention to ALPA affairs, and they couldn’t understand the lackadaisical attitude of the younger pilots, partically when it came to governance at the local level. By the late 1950s, many pilots simply took for granted that somebody else would do the hard work needed to sustain ALPA. While complacent pilots golfed or pursued second careers, a minority ran ALPA’s local affairs on each airline.

Although most of these individuals were dedicated to making ALPA work, on some airlines a few pilots used ALPA as a gimmick for personal aggrandizement. The indifference of the rank and file and the poor attendance at local council meetings meant that a minority on any airline could, with proper planning, seize control and eventually dominate the master executive council (MEC) itself. The danger was that a well-organized clique could speak for an indifferent majority of pilots.
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