I submit that no other union would've or could've achieved anything substantially better. The economy, the government, bankruptcy court, and the airline's financials are what caused the terrible concessions of the last seven years.
I never said that another union was the answer or that they would have done better. You're arguing something that I am not. I was merely responding to a question that PCL asked with a lot of background info so that he might understand the underlying frustration. Much of what was done by UA ALPA to the furloughees was done before BK. They gave up on scope and furlough grievances in Nov. 2001, 11 mos. before BK with full knowledge of both how many SJ's were coming and that management had publicly stated that it wanted to furlough 20% of the pilots.
In other words, dumping ALPA will yield no benefits. When the euphoria of the short-sighted USAir East pilots wears off this will become painfully obvious. A new scapegoat will need to be found. My guess is it will be USAPA.
You are right. In UA's case it was a terrible failure of union leadership combined with a pilot group who just wasn't prepared for what was happening and needed strong leadership to show the way. Only 9% of UA's pilot group in 2001 was around for 1985, less for the last furloughs in the 1978 and the 'Blue Skies' deal in the early 80's.
As far as UsAir East goes, they've never been happy with anything as a group and likely never will be. The big mistake was Doug Parker and his team not realizing what they were biting off way more than they could chew and to some extent early on the feeling of most UsWest pilots that they could ultimately deal with the East rationally when all evidence and history of who they were both dealing with was right in front of them.
http://cf.alpa.org/mec/aaa/docs/newmectoday/arc/airwaves/aw0203/merge0302.pdf
http://cf.alpa.org/mec/aaa/docs/newmectoday/arc/airwaves/aw0102/merger0201.pdf
http://cf.alpa.org/mec/aaa/docs/newmectoday/arc/airwaves/aw0012/merge1200.pdf
http://cf.alpa.org/mec/aaa/docs/newmectoday/arc/airwaves/aw0010/merg1000.pdf
In the end, I think you will be right, USAPA will be yet another scapegoat. USAPA won't work, it won't change the list and will ultimately fail under the weight of unrealistic expectations, lack of resources, and now two groups of pilots who will never be satisfied with what their 'leadership' comes up with. It's ultimate legacy will likely be determined by how much longer that they can drag out negotiations on a contract so that the two carriers still remain separate in an unofficial fence situation. Barring another merger to 'speed' things up, it seems like this will ultimately end up with Airways rejoining ALPA after USAPA runs out steam with their fruitless efforts and the majority of the East decides the fences have been up long enough.
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