Dude--your blind hatred for Southwest is just making you stupid. You know that?
You're really gonna make a stand that SWAPA is a bunch of "selfish pricks looking out for number one," based on not wasting negotiating capital to change the company's hiring minimums? Seriously, that's your argument? That's pretty damn funny, actually.
Let's talk about "selfish pricks," shall we?
Q: How many ALPA carriers have literally sold their own brethren down the river (i.e. allowed outsourced flying to the cheapest regional) in return for an extra percentage point or two in a contract raise?
A: Most, if not all of them. Bad for the entire industry. Selfish pricks, right? SWAPA has never moved backward on scope, and has expended substantial negotiating capital continually strengthening its scope, to the point where now it's the industry's gold standard. The first thing SWAPA did when Southwest bought AirTran was get your profession-damaging outsourced flying eliminated.
Q: What union actually sacrificed one of its own chapters (over a thousand members) in hopes of luring a a larger pilot group to join it, for the sake of increased dues money?
A: ALPA, in the case of TWA ALPA and American Airline's APA, during their SLI. More selfish pricks, right?
Q: How many ALPA groups have allowed their junior members to be furloughed when they might have been able to prevent it?
A: A lot; possibly most of them. Maybe not as selfish as other things, but they certainly didn't go out of their way to save their juniors. To the best of my knowledge, SWAPA is the only pilot union to ever voluntarily ask the company to reduce everyone's hours (and pay), simply to prevent any junior members from being furloughed (when we lost the leases on some planes and total flying was cut).
Q: How many DFR lawsuits has ALPA lost for actually screwing over various subsets of its own members (and usually related to money)?
A: I don't actually know for sure what the number is (ironically, you may), but the number is damn sure more than the zero that applies in SWAPA's case. You're right that some union has a bunch of "selfish pricks" in it, but it isn't who you think.
And after all that, you're gonna' whine that SWAPA is "damaging the profession," just because our company has a hiring standard that you don't like, and we don't waste money to try to persuade them to change it? That's so sad, it's laughable. Your entire argument is a joke, PCL.
Requiring a type rating isn't PFT anymore than requiring an ATP was. I doubt that anyone at ALPA, other than you, would even consider it that. Regardless, however you want to try to spin an ALPA rule for your pathetic argument's sake, it wouldn't matter anyway--federal law trumps unions' "policy." Spending union dues money for the benefit of non-members (applicants that neither work for the company nor belong to the union) opens the door for lawsuits. But then again, getting your ass handed to you in court has never stopped you before.
Bubba
