PCL--The public IS our audience. What has Congress done lately? $100k for a USA Today article? That doesn't even get you 15 min. with the junior Sen. from Indiana. (Who, BTW, is married to a woman sitting on F500 BOD's who can outspend the airline unions 100-to-1.)
The public is our only option now.
Do you really think the public cares? Do you really think spending big $$ on a public ad campaign is going to get the public behind a UAL 777 F/O, for example, pulling in 6 figures when "the public" is taking pay cuts, wage freezes, and are very concerned about their current jobs? People making 6 figure salaries (or close to it) don't get much sympathy in the general public. It's a waste of time and money I think.
Further, even if ALPA started such an ad campaign, probably costing millions of dollars if it was done right, how long do you think it would be before countless threads are started about how ALPA is wasting dues money on USA Today ads? Before our reps are getting tons of phone calls from tirading pilots threatening to leave ALPA if they don't stop wasting their money? Do you think, a guy like Glenn Tilton, with his track record and hatred of our pilot group, is going to cave when our contract becomes ammendable in DEC '09 because of public pressure? I wish.
I've always claimed that the union leaders are only concerned with their continued participation in the D.C. cocktail circuit.
Prove me wrong.
TC
What is he supposed to do to "prove you wrong?" Should he get Prater to call you up and say, "I'm not concerned with continued participation in the D.C. cocktail circuit?" Give me a break. Even if you received such a phone call, you'd probably just say he was lying to you. You hate ALPA, you love taking jabs at us, and nothing will change that.