- N
- D
At the upcoming ALPA Board of Directors meeting in October, the ALPA BOD Members (all local ALPA elected reps) with be electing National Officers. I’m running for ALPA President, and I am requesting your support. It’s high time the ALPA corporatist elites be voted out and replaced by real union representation.
I have over 30 years of ALPA experience and have witnessed our do-nothing leadership for most of those years. It’s up to us how we move forward, but I suggest it’s way past time to challenge the aspirations of managements and their lobby’s (Airlines for America, A4A) efforts to dismantle and destroy the labor element of our union. I thank you for your support and look forward to representing you as your next ALPA President.
I have over 30 years of ALPA experience and have witnessed our do-nothing leadership for most of those years. It’s up to us how we move forward, but I suggest it’s way past time to challenge the aspirations of managements and their lobby’s (Airlines for America, A4A) efforts to dismantle and destroy the labor element of our union. I thank you for your support and look forward to representing you as your next ALPA President.
HERE ARE JUST A FEW ITEMS I BELIEVE IN:
- Oppose any effort to roll back or find alternate paths with the First Officer Minimum Qualification rule, and continue to oppose alternate certification methods like MPL.
- Continue to oppose any hourly exemptions to the restricted ATP. Pay pilots more, and there won't be a pilot shortage!
- Oppose ab initio or any other pilot career development programs designed to permit a reduction in the current qualifications or a reduced training footprint required to operate as a pilot or flight crew member for any certificated operation. We do not need a return to crashing planes like Colgan Air in Buffalo.
- More ALPA direct involvement in aircraft certification and FAA approval of such things. The 737 MAX accidents were a complete failure of ALPA's long, proud history of safety.
- Advocate for a standard robust fatigue risk mitigation process that all ALPA carriers will adopt; utilize appropriate ALPA resources to ensure that all fatigued pilots are protected from punitive actions when they call in fatigued.
- Ensure that pilots are encouraged to detail fatigue events, giving all pertinent data such that the company, with ALPA and FAA oversight, can work to mitigate that fatigue risk in the future.
- Work to establish a fair financial protection system so that a pilot will feel no pressure to fly fatigued.
- Advocate through all available means to ensure that fatigue events are reported via ASAP or other reporting methods with the same protections.
- Educate pilots on the dangers of fatigue and their requirements under the FARs to ensure they are fit to operate the aircraft professionally; educate pilots that in-depth reporting is essential in combating future fatigue.
- Ensure that no absence or sick leave use tracking is used for fatigue events. Fatigue events are not sick leave use, nor are they absences. They cannot be held against a pilot at their current carrier or have any reporting that would disparage them with a follow-on carrier for fatigue calls.
- Pay commensurate with credentials. A longevity path paid over 40 years strengthens ALPA as a group by not creating privledged classes.
- A National Seniority list with "all" union member pilots. A national movement that brings us together to battle the foreign invasion coming to take American aviation jobs for less pay.
- Removal from the Railway Labor Act, we are not operating trains. We need an Aviation Labor Act - creating 21st Century rules that protect American jobs from the "already happening" foreign joint-ventures and foreign ownership deals that will ultimately destroy us without protections set in place today.
We will cover it all over the next few months. As for the fundraising the amount to raise is a requirement for Go-Fund-Me. It doesn't matter what you give, anything will help. What is important is I would never use ALPA dues dollars as all other candidates do use, and disguise it as "attending meetings".
Your contributions will be used to send out more letters, meet with ALPA BOD members to discuss these critical issues, and foster an accurate competitive campaign process as we approach October 2022.
Thank you for taking the time to read and participate in your future as a pilot.
Captain John Barton
777 SFO
777 SFO