Dear Fellow Pilots,
This has been an exciting year for ALPA in DC with many accomplishments and many challenges ahead of us. In February, both the House and the Senate passed legislation making it illegal to point a laser into the cockpit of an airplane, a long time safety priority. Over the summer, we successfully fought back amendments which would have weakened the proposed new flight and duty time regulations; we drove the point home by organizing more than 100 Members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats - to send a letter to the President asking him to follow the law and immediately implement these rules. Over the past three months alone we’ve had more than 300 meetings on Capitol Hill with ALPA pilots in uniform talking to Members of Congress and their staffs.
We are implementing a new, more aggressive strategy in DC and it’s already showing results. Part of that strategy requires us to have a strong, active PAC fully backed by our members. I know some of you have expressed concerns about how we use the PAC and how we choose issues on which to lobby Congress. I wanted to speak to those concerns personally.
ALPA-PAC’s mission is to achieve and maintain pro-pilot majorities in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Our only concern is whether a candidate effectively supports pro-pilot legislation or not. While I acknowledge ALPA members disagree on the many social and economic issues that face our country, it is not ALPA-PAC’s mission to exert influence on these issues; rather, we only engage on the issues of common importance to our members. ALPA-PAC is the 3rd most bipartisan labor PAC in the country and that status has allowed us, through the PAC, to open doors and to effectively communicate our concerns to both Republicans and Democrats. We have not always done a good job of communicating that fact to our members, but that is going to change starting now. Make no mistake, other PACs bring a great deal of influence to the issues, some in direct conflict with our best interest. Without ALPA-PAC, we are on the sidelines while others determine our future; that is unacceptable!
In keeping with our mission, our focus has been and will continue to be on the legislative branch. We must spend our energies and our funds where they will have the deepest impact and right now that is in the U.S. House and Senate.
Two issues have come up repeatedly as we’ve begun to grow the PAC: Age 65 Retirement and a perceived rift between our legacy carriers and our regional carriers.
Regarding Age 65: in 2007, an internal, national survey of ALPA members found that a majority of the membership supported raising the mandatory retirement age to mirror the ICAO standard. Like it or not, the FAA mandatory retirement age was going to change, but ALPA’s influence ensured that the new rule protected our members to the greatest extent possible. I realize some of our members remain frustrated by this change; however, the past is the past. We must now move forward together to keep ours the best career there is.
ALPA represents professional pilots – Captains and Co-Pilots, narrow body and wide body, international and domestic, those who commute to work and those who do not, regional and main-line. Where some see conflicts of interest between the regional and legacy carriers, I see common ground, common purpose, and agreement. We all want science-based flight and duty time limits. We all want prosperous careers, our carriers to be successful, and for the U.S. aviation industry to remain a cornerstone of the U.S. economy. We all want American commercial aviation to be owned by American companies and piloted by American pilots. As we counter threats from abroad to our independence and our standards, we must stand together with one voice and as one union. We should not be fighting each other, but instead uniting to fight a growing foreign threat that is rapidly encroaching on our market share.
With that in mind, I am asking for your vote of confidence. Will you join me in making a contribution to ALPA-PAC today? We are fighting for the future of our industry and our profession. With your help and support, we will win the day.
Sincerely,
Captain Donald Lee Moak
President, Air Line Pilots Association
This has been an exciting year for ALPA in DC with many accomplishments and many challenges ahead of us. In February, both the House and the Senate passed legislation making it illegal to point a laser into the cockpit of an airplane, a long time safety priority. Over the summer, we successfully fought back amendments which would have weakened the proposed new flight and duty time regulations; we drove the point home by organizing more than 100 Members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats - to send a letter to the President asking him to follow the law and immediately implement these rules. Over the past three months alone we’ve had more than 300 meetings on Capitol Hill with ALPA pilots in uniform talking to Members of Congress and their staffs.
We are implementing a new, more aggressive strategy in DC and it’s already showing results. Part of that strategy requires us to have a strong, active PAC fully backed by our members. I know some of you have expressed concerns about how we use the PAC and how we choose issues on which to lobby Congress. I wanted to speak to those concerns personally.
ALPA-PAC’s mission is to achieve and maintain pro-pilot majorities in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Our only concern is whether a candidate effectively supports pro-pilot legislation or not. While I acknowledge ALPA members disagree on the many social and economic issues that face our country, it is not ALPA-PAC’s mission to exert influence on these issues; rather, we only engage on the issues of common importance to our members. ALPA-PAC is the 3rd most bipartisan labor PAC in the country and that status has allowed us, through the PAC, to open doors and to effectively communicate our concerns to both Republicans and Democrats. We have not always done a good job of communicating that fact to our members, but that is going to change starting now. Make no mistake, other PACs bring a great deal of influence to the issues, some in direct conflict with our best interest. Without ALPA-PAC, we are on the sidelines while others determine our future; that is unacceptable!
In keeping with our mission, our focus has been and will continue to be on the legislative branch. We must spend our energies and our funds where they will have the deepest impact and right now that is in the U.S. House and Senate.
Two issues have come up repeatedly as we’ve begun to grow the PAC: Age 65 Retirement and a perceived rift between our legacy carriers and our regional carriers.
Regarding Age 65: in 2007, an internal, national survey of ALPA members found that a majority of the membership supported raising the mandatory retirement age to mirror the ICAO standard. Like it or not, the FAA mandatory retirement age was going to change, but ALPA’s influence ensured that the new rule protected our members to the greatest extent possible. I realize some of our members remain frustrated by this change; however, the past is the past. We must now move forward together to keep ours the best career there is.
ALPA represents professional pilots – Captains and Co-Pilots, narrow body and wide body, international and domestic, those who commute to work and those who do not, regional and main-line. Where some see conflicts of interest between the regional and legacy carriers, I see common ground, common purpose, and agreement. We all want science-based flight and duty time limits. We all want prosperous careers, our carriers to be successful, and for the U.S. aviation industry to remain a cornerstone of the U.S. economy. We all want American commercial aviation to be owned by American companies and piloted by American pilots. As we counter threats from abroad to our independence and our standards, we must stand together with one voice and as one union. We should not be fighting each other, but instead uniting to fight a growing foreign threat that is rapidly encroaching on our market share.
With that in mind, I am asking for your vote of confidence. Will you join me in making a contribution to ALPA-PAC today? We are fighting for the future of our industry and our profession. With your help and support, we will win the day.
Sincerely,
Captain Donald Lee Moak
President, Air Line Pilots Association
