Eagle union politics and Contract 2013

[beagle pilot]

I know you mean well and want to improve the future of this industry, but it's not going to happen here.
You see it as whining and complaining. I see it as being sick of having to watch my back from not only management, but the "Union".
From my experience, our local was more pro-management than our management was.

I'm not trying to improve the future of this industry, just my little slice of heaven.

Your negative attitudes towards the world aside, I see a pilot union as the best means to improve my lot as an airline pilot. The company is only interested in profit. Their concern about employees is limited to how much money those employees can make for them. Unions belong to us as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread. Unfortunately, like SecDef Rumsfeld said, "Democracy is messy". Similarly, Prime Minister Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Unions are bottom-up organizations, not top-down like a corporation or a military unit. If the "bottom" doesn't present a focused agenda to their elected representatives or hold those same representatives accountable for their actions, then the union becomes a boys club for those in office. Unions, by themselves aren't bad. They aren't corrupt and they aren't evil. On the other hand, they aren't good and pure either. They're just a means for a group of people to use their combined efforts to gain what they believe is rightfully theirs. In this case, fair treatment and fair compensation for their work.

Complaining about a union makes as little sense as a cook making a stew then complaining about how it tastes. You get out of it what you put into it.

If people would spend more time organizing a grass-roots agenda in crew rooms and using their union as a frame-work for action instead of sitting outside and throwing rocks, they will see better results and a better improvement to their lot in life. Unfortunatly tossing rocks and whining a much easier than the effort and patience it takes to organize a group of people which is why so many people would rather sit on their asses and throw rocks.