I think you mean how do any pilots have any faith in the union.
Yes.
For me it was the continuing LOA agreements, the ability to close grievances, large network of volunteer pilots, communication and plenty of people on the phone to talk to. If the SAPA guys do all that and no dues then good for you
You asked about the autonomy of the SAPA leadership, which is what I responded to, but now you're turning it into a union/nonunion argument...and I've stated where I stand on that.
Again, there is *no doubt* in my mind that the current SAPA leadership is not being influenced by management any more that union leaders at other airlines are. SAPA is able to do all the things you mention above, but the fact that they are not part of a national union limits their ability in several areas (grievance process, legal and aeromedical assistance, etc).
, but a lot of us sit around asking about the health benefit change which initially begin with no money in that savings account, to finally giving them 2,000
That was a huge kick in the nuts when it came out, and the company did backpedal substantially. In the end, my plan stayed intact (although the premiums went up by like $8/month or something). There was nothing SAPA could do about it because benefit changes had not been included in the policy manual. They saw their mistake and included language protecting at least some of the health care options in the most recent policy manual. But again, that's a product of not having a
true CBA and negotiating assistance from a national union.
I'm just taking exception to your comment on the autonomy of SAPA, not which system works better. It sounds weird for the company to pay the salaries of SAPA people who piss them off, but that's exactly what they do (and they probably see that as the price of being non-union). There have been company lackey SAPA guys in the past, but those are generally a reflection of pilot attitude rather than management influence.
Aroo? Are you saying its in your flight ops manual or something?
It's in Skywest's (I don't work there anymore) pilot policy manual. Believe it or not, the company can not amend the manual without the consent of SAPA. I'm not sure if they would dissolve SAPA to get around that and radically change the PPM (that would be an express train to ALPA), but as long as SAPA exists they need SAPA approval for any changes to it. Things that are nebulously written or otherwise open to interpretation are *very* problematic, and it doesn't really lay out procedures for holding the company accountable for times when it violates the PPM, but on things that are spelled out clearly like pay scales there's nothing they can do to force their will.
