For starters, no flame was intended. You made some pretty strong statements regarding ALPA and their recent failures, and I thought they merited a response.
Dan, your comments are laughable-at best. For an ALPA carrier to allow a Teamster labor contract to determine who populates its seniority list is a sad testimoniy to how corrupt ALPA has become.
Again, as I understand it, this is a deal between ABX and it's parent organization ATSG, which then flows back down to ATI. ATI pilots could probably strike a similar deal with ATSG that would provide for preferential hiring at ABX, in the event that ATI shrinks and ABX grows. (Which might be worth looking into, now that it appears that DHL is going to "grow" ABX's 767 operation)
Sorry, the scum at the top steer MEC/LEC members in the wrong direction to benefit their own employment within the ALPA heirarchy. It has nothing to do with the "average ALPA crewmember" or their unity. It is the corruption and incompetance at the top of the organization.
This argument is coming full-circle. Under Federal law, elections for union leadership are done under strict and impartial oversight. So, who ELECTS "the scum at the top?" I believe it's WE, the "scum" at the bottom. It's
gotta be us, because our "scummy leaders" can't vote themselves into office. Fix "us" and you'll fix ALPA
You see Dan, ALPA started as a good thing with noble intentions- to improve working conditions and quality of life for pilots. It now exists to serve its administration. As with other scocial organizations who have lost the direction of the reason they were created in the first place, the outfit is a shell of its former self. The "ALPA is US" mantra has grown stale. Find some new material.
You need to know that my family's involvement with unions goes back at least three generations to the turn of the last century, and our involvement in airline unions to post WWII. My Dad was buried with his pin on his lapel. So I know as well as anybody why ALPA was started, and what their intentions were.
I think if Dave Behncke were alive today, he'd SH1T. Then, he'd start whatever steps were necessary to bring some MEC's into line with the goals of the national organization. That would probably involve bringing those MEC's under the oversight of ALPA national until new leadership could be elected. The first heads to roll would be some of the lawyers and contract administrators who seem to think that ALPA is just a place to hang out until they have enough saved for retirement.
OK, if [the Teamsters are] your affiliation/product your peddling of the day. Hopefully,for you, you may get them to take over ATSG as a whole and start lining the Teamster management pockets.
The Teamsters have done a MUCH better job of protecting their members interests, and careers, than ALPA. I think that's because they've never forgotten that they're a
Union, and that a Union's first and foremost responsibility is to protect JOBS. Everything else...hourly rates, working conditions, etc., flows from that. I'm not advocating for them, just stating what I believe to be a fact. After all, it's the Teamsters that lobbied for preferential hiring for their guys at ATI, not the other way around.
