Free Bird

That other airline (AMR) is certainly a measuring stick as to where we are at as a pilot group imo. Both of you guys (alfa + Nu) have some valid points to be considered.

Despite giving mother Delta a joint contract on a silver platter that included a ridiculous amount of 70+ seat RJ's, many of us MD 88 drivers are STILL paid almost exactly what our AMR peers make after all of our raises. Many Delta pilots that I fly with and know, feel that we left some low hanging fruit on the tree with the Joint Contract. Yes, a majority of the Delta pilots voted for the JC, there are however many that feel DALPA had leverage because of mngt's need to get the merger done and we gave that away.

There is a group of FO's that after a 5 year furlough came back to see ALPA back the age 65 rule. That alone is enough for me to at least take a look at other options when it comes to our representation. Now throw in ALPA's backing of the 500 hr rule, it's a no brainer imo, our best interest are not being represented. After what many Delta pilots have been through I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that many of us would consider making a change.

Pineapple Guy

We used to have even more on MLOA and furlough bypass, so... yes we are growing albeit slowly.

And BTW, AMR has all these guys on MLOA too, and STILL has 1900 furloughs with zero hiring. DAL/NWA have hired 1300 since 2007 and brought all the guys who wanted to come back from furlough back.

AMR? Zip.

Amish Pilot

Well put Free Bird. I don't see sending in your card as being disloyal to ALPA. I see it as giving us options, let ALPA work to keep Delta pilots. I want to see some big changes. Not even addressing the conflict of interest between mainline and RJs is bs.

944Turbo

I'm printing something right now.....

Free Bird

+1............

Herkflyr

The rest of your post was good...until I got to this sentence. Are you kidding me? Let's check two of the most "admired" in-house unions, SWAPA and APA.

SWAPA always was a forceful and blatant advocate of Age 65, long before ALPA reluctantly got on board. What a "great" in-house union that was! In fact, you can thank SWAPA for all their efforts that helped put ALPA in a no-win situation regarding Age 65.

Now the APA came out publicly against Age 65, and I applaud them for their honesty and forthrightness...but then not one congressman--not one!--even from the APA's own district, voted against Age 65. Boy, that's an effective in-house union.

So ALPA had to accept and live in the real world (something not advocated often in the bizarre alternate reality of these aviation message boards) and reluctantly switched positions so as to at least have a little influence in the legislation. I think that if left to SWAPA to be the sole voice in Congress, you would have had thousands of age 60-65 retirees coming right back to "their" left seats: "got mine, want yours" and all that.

So, I understand coming back from years of furlough just to see the union support a further stagnation in your career causing a lot of anger. I just don't see how changing representation, when the obvious examples are WORSE than what ALPA represented (at least in this example) helps anything.

acl65pilot

Maybe those behind DPA can run for MEC Chair!

Sink r8

Out in the open? And leave themselves all exposed?

Amish Pilot

Valid points PG.

I have been wanting to ask, is that a Honda Fury or custom build in your Pic?

I'm a motorcycle guy, current stable: BMW K1300S, Duc GT1000, KTM 990 Adv, and 25 Anv. Yamaha R1.

Amish Pilot

Maybe they will, but I doubt it.