Clownpilot said:
[B
Yeah well here's a horse that will tell you straight. I am an AA pilot and I am active in the union. I also monitor all union activities pretty closely. Yes, there is a small yet very vocal group who are proponents of merging with ALPA. They have yet to gain enough steam to even force a ballot vote. Many people, including myself, believe that a move to ALPA may be inevitable in the coming years. But support for that right now is very low. There is no immediate possibility of that happening. The TWA acquisition set back the ALPA movement probably years. Many guys now believe that after what TWA tried in the political arena it would be far too risky to become a part of the organization that represented them. Frankly, many guys are so pissed off from that Bond legislation that they may never support an ALPA move. However, the time may come. But, it won't be soon. Right now overall support for a move to ALPA is less than 10% as opposed to 35-40% pre TWA. [/B]
Thanks for the assesment. I won't debate the TWA scenario, mostly because I think ALPA did little to represent them (for political reasons associated with the effort to recruit you).
Anyway, I'm happy to hear that support for a merger is such a small minority. While I am obviously NOT an AA pilot, I think you're far better off runing your own show. The type of politics that caused you to leave ALPA in the first place are alive and well today. The only real difference is that it's being played against folks like me. BTW, you weren't much bigger than we are today back then.
We submitted a proposal to AMR management for the eventual integration of all jet flying at AA. This included bringing a part of AE that flies RJ's into our fold. Management responded that our proposal gave them nothing to work with, was completely unrealistic, and didn't warrant a formal counterproposal of any kind. And frankly we never received one. But, it did end the PR campaign against us that they were using to try to convince people that we were the reason they had to furlough AE pilots and employees. It was all a PR game.
I'm pleased to see you acknowledge that the APA proposal was really a scam, i.e., just a PR game. The only thing I feel sad about is that there appeared to be a lot of "suckers" at AE willing to jump on that bandwagon and failing to recognize what you were really doing. PR though it may have been, in the remote change that AMR has swallowed it, it was a vehicle that allowed you to take the Eagle aircraft for yourselves at their expense. Apparently and unfortunately, many (from what I read in forums like this one) AE pilots are green enough and naive enough to see it as something good for them.
You can go on and on about this issue but as I have said before, scope will control the RJ issue and we must preserve that scope clause at all costs. I am the strongest advocate of maintaining strong scope not only as a control measure for management but also as a control for the 'one list' wackos.
As I have said before, you are entitled to your beliefs and the pursuit of what you see as your best interests. All that you need to comprehend is that we are entitled to the very same thing.
As for the "one list" bit, I am personally against it (which I have said before as well). However, I am very much dedicated to prevent you from controlling my flying or my life and, just like you intend to continue to try, I intend to continue the effort to stop you.
You've made it clear in previous posts that you are not worried about what we think, you intend to pursue your course with no possibility of compromise. There's not much I can do about that, but it doesn't reduce me to cowering in fear of your wrath either.
No doubt the folks with your attitude will win many battles. You're big, strong and very powerful. So was Great Britain, but it didn't phase the Minute Men. History has a record of repeating itself when we don't learn from it. I don't think you all have.