Move2CLT said:
"FYI, Graceson IS NOT a west pilot. Please do not feed this troll."
Thanks, Move2.
You're one of our best soldiers. You're one of a few who have the volition to stand at the front and brave the onslaught of those who've lost any sense of ethical direction. Their moral compass points in one direction only down.
Sad, don't you think? That it's come to this. Our once proud Association consisted of chapters throughout the country, individual and separate. A successful strategy -- each chapter perpetually setting a higher benchmark for the next to leapfrog to greater rewards. It was effective. The CAB regulated airfares and controlled competition. There was always enough revenue to cover the rising benchmark of our profession.
Then Kahn came along and it all went terribly wrong. Our association failed to evolve to meet the new challenges. While management surfed the shifting sands of this evolving landscape, our association's structure proved cumbersome and unresponsive. Low cost carriers became the rage. Management quickly learned to leverage that once reliable benchmark strategy against us in a race to the bottom. Antiquated Railway Labor Laws, Bankruptcy Manipulation, Legal Corporate M&A Cannibalization…
Imagine... What if we'd anticipated rather than reacted. Imagine the year 1977, when our Association set a new standard. A new structure. With the old guard grandfathered and wages protected, we'd evolve to redesign a new system where a National Airline Pilot Association negotiates a standard contract for all of its chapter associates. A universal CBA that calculates, then averages the fixed cost per pilot for services across all airlines and across the nation. From the pool of funds, of course, a pilot is paid a variable rate based on years of service.
Imagine that. An airline goes belly-up, no problem. When the vacuum is filled by competitors, pilots simply make a lateral move. Left seat, right seat, it doesn't matter. All are paid by years of service. No starting at the bottom of the pay scale as if you'd never spun a prop before.
Imagine…a fellowship among pilots. A proud profession where our strength is our unity. And we owe it all to ALPA's vision.
But, anyway. No time for sentiment when we've got the East over there, leading the morality race to the bottom by any professional measure. You do provide an invaluable service to our cause. Gorilla warfare is such an archaic term. I prefer, special forces. Your aim is laser-like. Your psychological strikes, surgical. Your tactics demoralize, provoke emotion, cloud reason, distract, and destabilize. The ancillary benefit, of course, is that this intimidation serves two purposes. It helps keep our own soldiers on the narrow for fear of their own public humiliation and ostracism.
I do respect that kind of dedication to our cause.
