How are going to enforce any "scope" when you don't have a union? Do you have any idea how much money you would have to collect from each pilot to take a major airline to federal court to argue your case on scope? And what do you do when most of the pilots won't agree to contribute to the cause? Any "scope" that the PVC comes up with is worthless and unenforceable in practice. You need a union and a system board of adjustment process to have any sort of enforceable scope.
All of the ALPA major airlines have B-Funds now. A B-Fund is your own money in your own account, much like a 401k, and it can't be taken away in bankruptcy. The difference is that you don't have to contribute anything to get the money. For instance, we have a 10.5% B-Fund at AirTran. That means the company contributes 10.5% of my gross income to my own retirement account each pay check, without me having to contribute a dime. Much better than a simple 401k.
A slow grievance process is usually the result of a lack of dedicated volunteers at your individual airline to keep the process moving. When pilots don't step up to do the work, then a bottleneck gets created that slows down the process. You don't see this so much at the major carriers, because the pilots are usually more involved in their careers, and there are enough people who are willing to do the work. At the regionals, which I'm guessing is where you came from, it is harder to find volunteers, especially qualified volunteers, so it's more difficult to keep the process moving. The lawyers do what they can, but if the pilots don't help themselves, then it's tough to get things done.
I have no doubt that you'll have plenty of dedicated volunteers at JetBlue. You already have the largest organizing committee ever created in ALPA history. You also have a management team that is far less hostile than most carriers. Those things combined will lead to an effective grievance process.
Why do you say that? Pilots get time off awarded to them in grievance for contract violations all the time. In fact, it's probably more common to get paid days off awarded than it is to get cash awarded, since most grievances result from scheduling violations.
ALPA wins 75% of the disciplinary cases that go to arbitration, and over 50% of the contract cases that go to arbitration. That's better than just about every other union in the country. The average is about 30% for all of organized labor nationwide.
Why do you feel that you'll need to give something up? You work for a successful and growing company. There is no reason that they can't improve your insurance without you having to give them concessions in other areas. Once you have a legal collective bargaining agent, and the assistance of the NMB, you'll have some leverage to get improvements. Until then, you have no leverage.
imp:
