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Stopping the slide

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Tank Commander

Jim "Tank Daddy" Bizzell
Joined
Jun 29, 2004
Posts
240
I’m not a business major nor a very smart guy, but I’ve study the art of war for 20yrs. Alpa has done a good job trying to hold thing together over the past 7 years. I’ve only been a member for the last two of them. We all at the regional level have seen whipsawing of pilot groups. The out sourcing has began. Ramp workers, A/C cleaners, Mechanics, and now Flight Attendants. You say “but we are not being out sourced “. Yes we are. We, regional pilots are being used to outsource mainline pilot jobs. It’s ugly but true. The careers we work so hard for are the ones that managements are using us to destroy. That is unlit managements figure out a way to train and hire 3rd world pilots that will fly for $10.00hrs, and I’m sure they are looking in to it. In the future the major carriers will be nothing but a name, and an IPO on wall street racking in big profits off low paid labor. We as regional pilots need to find a way to stop the slide. I’ve heard in the past of talk of a regional pilots union. The whipsawing must stop. We are fighting a civil war amongst ourselves. We all just want to work in a career field we love. Alpa had its problems serving two masters. One master was bigger and paid more. Its interest came first. Just nature of the beast. If regional pilots don’t unit under one banner together it will continue. We hold one big card in our hands. We are the now and future answer to the LCC for the legacy airlines. Under one union, we can protect each other and our jobs. One union that can say that is struck work don’t fly it. Right now we have nothing. The legacy carrier we fly under will just bring in another regional that is cheaper to do the flying. Apla doesn’t seem to care or are fighting bigger battles somewhere else. We need to stand, and stand soon.
 
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Did someone get pensive during cruise? Great initial observations..... do some more research... the issues are very complex, difficult and fustrating....

Of course, you can find quick, instant gratification style answers on flight info..... problem is..nothing changes...
 
Tank Commander said:
I’m not a business major nor a very smart guy, but I’ve studied the art of war for 20 yrs. Alpa has done a good job trying to hold things together over the past 7 years; I’ve only been a member for the last two of them. We all at the regional level have seen whipsawing of pilot groups. The outsourcing has begun.

ALPA doesn’t seem to care or are fighting bigger battles somewhere else. We need to stand, and stand soon.
You are exactly right. One major problem: your "soldiers" have to realize that they are actually "at war"...

Most regional pilots do NOT have that mentality... they're just 'happy to be here' and have some vague idea that their lives COULD be better.
 
So how do we do this? How do we get enough regional pilots pissed off enough to form our own union? How do we get away from ALPA? I'm very interested.
 
But guys, this is just a temporary cyclical correction. We will all be at the majors in a few years when things work themselves out. Me personally, I'm still hanging on to my United scantron form that a friend gave to me a few years ago so I can be the first in line when they start to hire again. I did not get into flying to fly for a regional my entire career. I hope that you too have the same feeling and want to get on with a major like you and I have always dreamed of and flying the big iron across the pond.
 
LoweringTheBar said:
But guys, this is just a temporary cyclical correction. We will all be at the majors in a few years when things work themselves out. Me personally, I'm still hanging on to my United scantron form that a friend gave to me a few years ago so I can be the first in line when they start to hire again. I did not get into flying to fly for a regional my entire career. I hope that you too have the same feeling and want to get on with a major like you and I have always dreamed of and flying the big iron across the pond.

Where is the poster in your avitar located at? I would love to have my picture taken with it.
 
I'm not saying that divorcing ALPA is the way to go. If you're really interested in that route go visit www.rjdc.org and you will have enough anti-ALPA rhetoric to have you questioning things.

What they DON'T mention is the things they don't mention in ALPA meetings:

1. If your carrier goes on strike, where does the money come from to pay strike benefits, pay the bills of the strike center, get negotiators to and from negotiations, etc?

2. Fighting grievances and company problems takes lawyers and that takes money. What happens if you run low on money for a month or two?

3. ALPA spends HUGE amount of money in D.C. trying to lobby politicians to avoid things that corporate airline management groups keep trying to slide by and fighting for things such as better rest and duty provisions, better pension laws, etc. What happens when ALPA sees another group of pilots as "the enemy" and has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend in lobbying against regional pilots?

Not as simple as "forming our own union"... and that's just a few of the more obvious items.
 
Master Shake said:
So how do we do this? How do we get enough regional pilots pissed off enough to form our own union? How do we get away from ALPA? I'm very interested.

Why do you need to form your own union?

Why do you need to get away from ALPA?

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't, but you need a in depth understanding of what the (real) problem is, how the system works, what pragmatic solutions are out there and HOW will you go about getting it done.


First, you suggesting to "get enough regional pilots" together. How will that be done? How will you get organized?
 
No one pilot group has the cahones to actually strike or require airline management to abide by agreements. That's the problem. Too much empty sabre rattling and little to no action.
 

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