I too have been waiting to see what happens before sending my card. You have just convinced me to send it in. You can have ALPA to yourselves.
BTW, it'll be about 6000 mainline pilots including the AWA pilots.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Adios amigo!
We'll see. I just don't see it happening. The East MEC and people like USA320pilot have been pushing this decert drive to
threaten ALPA and the West, trying to put on a show of unity. I think the reality is that it will be futile and they know it. They are using the
threat in an attempt to have the Nicolau award altered. It won't work. There are enough East pilots who might feign support at a union meeting to avoid peer pressure and harassment, but will vote with their wallet when they realize the financial benefit and quality of life improvement they will have immediately if a Joint Contract is put out for a vote. And don't expect any West pilots to vote ALPA out.
But if you're that confident, then have at it. If you make life decisions based on what you read on a message board from anonymous people ("you have just convinced me to send it in.") then that is your own short coming.
Regardless of what you think about me or anyone else, you guys know as well as everyone that you (most of the East pilots) can achieve
almost everything you desire (attrition protection, furlough protection, domicile protection, work rule changes, vacation changes, raises beyond what is available in the short term or long term by moving from reserve to block holder etc, and immediate quality of life improvement for your family) through the JNC. The ONLY thing you can't do is reorder the list. If you want to throw away all the benefits available to you and your families in order to make a stand and possibly die on the DOH hill, then so be it. No one is going to be able to talk you out of it anyway. If that is your ultimate goal, the get on with it already and stop the threats.
It is easy to see who is being unreasonable when you look at one side being able to obtain everything they claim to want except one single demand (DOH), and still not willing to compromise. This is why everyone on the outside including me are now saying "adios!" It is not our arrogance, but yours. It is a
reaction to
your behavior. It is simply the East's consistently unreasonable posture that has provoked us to give up on the lot of you, and makes us want to wash our hands of you. When will you guys stop playing the victim and blaming others, and take ownership of not only your situation but the reaction you are receiving from the rest of the world. When one person cries that everyone else is always at fault, the problem usually lies with that one person. Every rational and pragmatic adult knows this simple truth.
Look, we all understand that this is an emotional issue. But you guys are allowing yourselves to be blinded by your emotion. Here's an idea... negotiate a Joint Contract with all the above benfits and put it out for a practice vote. If a majority of your pilots agree, then ditch your entire LEC and MEC. If it's voted down then decert ALPA and continue on your war path. Just stop the threats and the blaming of others.