it will become "unwinnable" pretty GD quickly with Prater and the current corrupt stooges in charge.
you heard it from UALdriver first...ALPA is already posturing to justify rolling over on cabotage.
Yup, that's exactly what I said. ALPA's posturing to roll over on cabotage. Why don't you do me a favor and not put words in my mouth?
See, the problem with guys like you are that everything is a "black and white" issue. Unfortunatley, in the world of politics, that is not the case. Age 60, in my opinion, is an example of the shades of grey world ALPA operates in.
There are two kinds of fights when you're about to be on the losing side of an issue. The "fight to the death fight" where an organization (like ALPA) can fight a change in legislature, even if they know a change is going to occur anyway. What do you gain from this type of fight? Nothing, but I guess you get to make a point and then clueless guys like you can thump your chest and pretend you're a tough guy while changes get forced down your throat with no input. Maybe you think that's cool or that's the way to duel in the world of politics. Personally I don't.
Then there's the other type of fight. There's the type of fight where you realize a change is going to occur anyway, whether you like it or not, but instead of "fighting to the death" and getting nothing, you realize the fight is lost but you try to get something, anything that you otherwise wouldn't have received if you had continued that aforementioned "fight to the death."
Want a recent example to illustrate my point? IMO, look no further than the U.S. Airways and the America West pilot merger. Wanna bet that if you were a fly on the wall at the U.S. Airways pilot union meetings when they were discussing the direction their negotiating committeee should take concerning the pilot list merge that they were screaming "Date of hire or nothing! Fight to the death!! Date of hire or nothing!!" Their negotiators probably had the pilots' desires etched in to their heads- fight to the death- date of hire or nothing. Instead of realizing that they weren't going to get DOH after the arbitrator made it pretty darn clear they weren't going to get it, they chose to fight to the death on the date of hire issue instead of compromising and most certainly getting a better deal by negotiating with the America West guys. Maybe the U.S. Air guys could have gotten a fence, a better integration- something, anything. But instead they chose to fight to the death on the date of hire issue. Black and white world in their union halls I guess. If I was a U.S. Air guy, I'd be wondering if I had stuck a toe in the shades of grey world if I would have gotten something better than what Nicolau gave me. Hindsight is 20-20, huh?
Now I'll type slowly so you can get my point, but as I have said repeatedly, I think economic globalization is coming whether we like it or not- including foreign ownership and cabotage. I think ALPA should fight these issues extremely vigorously until it becomes a politically unwinnable fight and the change is going to occur anyway no matter how hard we oppose- and I hope that political day NEVER comes. But when/if that day comes, whether it is a week from now or a decade from now, ALPA may need to change from their "fight to the death" attitude to "let's try to get something" that will benefit its pilot constituents if it's likely we're going to lose anyway. That, to me, is a smarter way to fight.
