Speedtape said:
Alpa at ASA, are the pilots at ASA--no one else!
You are correct - and also very critical of ALPA.
Is ALPA a national union, or are we just the pilots at ASA? I happen to really like and support the efforts of the great volunteer staff, LEC Members and MEC Members at ASA.
I suspect you were not here for much of the fight from 1999 to 2001 but our MEC has had to become quite a bit more "politically correct" to keep ALPA National's support flowing. I understand what they are doing and appreciate the fact they walk a real tightrope. If you were at our last LEC meeting, you heard the reason that a resolution asking National not to allow bidding on phantom airplanes was pulled because of fear the Delta pilots might feel it was a "Kick in their nuts."
The correct decision was made in my opinion, but let us look at the issue. Airline Management has used phantom negotiations to cap pay rates. As you know Delta negotiated pay rates for RJ's that undercut ASA's current book. These negotiations were made with data that showed how much money Delta would save at DCI carriers with the concessionary RJ rates imposed across the board. So management is using whipsaw by basing pay rates at on competitive pay rates (ratified by ALPA) at airlines which do not operate those airplanes. Obviously it would be better for our profession if the pilots union did not ratify concessionary pay rates at airlines which have no plans to operate the aircraft. Such a resolution was made.
However, even resolving to stop phantom whipsaw bidding is a problem when you plan on taking an idea to ALPA National. Why? Why isn't ALPA National all about common sense solutions to raise our profession?
Could it be that the ruling members of ALPA National see a benefit to concessionary bargaining at DCI carriers? Could they see Delta's cost savings as a good thing for the Delta pilots?
Until ALPA deals with its conflict of interest and brings pilots together it is going to be an ineffective union. My interest is not to "bash" ALPA, but to try and save it. We need an effective union.
I do not see a pot of growth at the end of our negotiations - unless we undercut SkyWest. But, that is not an acceptable option - we will not do it.
Again, the reason for that problem rests with ALPA National. We have no scope. The reason we have no scope is because ALPA National stopped us from even trying when Bob Arnold asked to negotiate with Delta Airlines. Delta said yes, ALPA said no. Today we have 6 DCI carriers and our negotiating ability has eroded since the days when we were the only game in town.
In the past a resolved contract would be a prescription for growth. But now there are plenty of alter ego replacements. The E170's and CRJ900's you will see are "our growth" which has already got out of the barn. Aircraft orders take a lot of lead time. Delta's restructuring is mostly complete. There may be small variations in the execution, but this stuff is getting done now. Unfortunately almost all of this flying is going to non ALPA carriers. This is probably by design and again indicates our union's failure to deal with what they see as a conflict of interest which they are fixing by attacking our representational base.
Your attempt at a personal attack is based on incorrect information - resorting to personal attacks and trying to "out" people on FlightInfo has generally been considered pretty low. If you support the pilots at ASA, I encourage you to not attack them.
You ask what I'm for; I'm for the promotion of the Piloting Profession in general and the pilots of ASA in particular - join in, it is a worthy cause.
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