Heyas,
Fins is correct. The EF&A on the APA proposal is worthless. The example used was the position from 97, and the whole airline world has changed since then. Frozen or eliminated DB plans, pay cuts, work rules...the list is endless.
My guess these days if you were to do a real cost analysis, the money you save and the revenue you generate from single carrier ops is darn close to the increased costs.
As for leaving ALPA, I'm really starting to think that's a good idea. UAL has been on the brink for years with this. ALL services that ALPA provides to it's members are also set up for outsourcing, and infact, is a profit center for ALPA.
If DAL left, it would cause a cascade failure of ALPA. You don't lose %20 of your revenue and continue to do business as usual. UAL, CAL and probably FedEx would see the writing on the wall, and depart in short order.
My guess is that a coalition of major airline groups would then form, to pool resources for common services and interests, such as medical, legal, safety and EF&A. SWA, DAL, AMR, UAL, UPS and others would all be involved, and there would probably be wide scale poaching of talent from what would be left of ALPA administration.
What would remain of ALPA would be the representation of the regionals and the services branch. The regional representation, which has not, and cannot ever support itself, and would collapse.
The resulting fiscal crisis from the majors' departure would force a packaging of the technical/legal talent into a services outsourcing firm, and would be spun off to generate revenue to meet the legal obligations of the remaining carriers.
In the end, the spun off technical firm would be providing the same services as the majors receive now, but at probably a greatly reduced cost, and without the fiscal overhead of flight pay loss to ALPA national officers.
As a bonus, you've also freed yourself from any complicated entanglements.
Wow, I think I just talked myself into it...
Nu
