Lear70
JAFFO
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2003
- Posts
- 7,487
That's my whole point, National NEEDS to take control.ALPA National doesn't "direct" MECs on anything. National only provides assistance and resources. Under the current Constitution & Bylaws, National doesn't have the power to direct anything at the local level. Until pilots are willing to cede some control to National, that won't change. The problem is that pilots are control freaks, and they won't budge on allowing National any more power to direct things.
1. Pilots don't have ANY control to cede. The elect their MEC/LEC leadership, then only get to vote IF they have MEMRAT for EVERYTHING. Even resolutions don't have to be followed, even if you have over 50% of your fellow pilots signed onto the resolution. Otherwise, the MEC/LEC is in control of everything. The only power a pilot group has is to recall their local leadership if they don't like what they're doing.
2. The local MEC/LEC offices are working just for themselves, and depend on National to set policy moving forward as a group; hence, the "taking it back" campaign by Prater. Every pilot and the MEC's look to National. Indeed, the ALPA President has to sign off on EVERY T.A. that's done under ALPA flag (part of the C&BL's).
3. National has gotten fat, dumb, and happy as an organization. It's a bloated bureaucracy these days that needs a larger purpose in life, as it used to in the day where it watched ALL the pilot groups to make sure they ALL forwarded the profession as a WHOLE. They don't do that anymore, and all I hear is "the individual MEC's set their own goals".
If we want to improve EVERYONE'S QOL, we need minimum standards for contracts as they move forward. National needs to exert some control over what is negotiated so that one group of labor isn't sold down the river for another (Senior CA's "eating their young").
I think ALPA can be saved as a union, but it's going to have to reinvent itself. Times have changed, and operating under the model of the 80's is no longer a viable operating stance.