Originally Posted by
bafanguy
hans,
I'll hate myself in the morning but I'll just add a bit of specific detail to your comments. I usually don't get involved in word games but for some reason I'm wading in here.
"Every" airline in the US is not 100% unionized. For example, at Delta the only unionized groups are the pilots and dispatchers...no one else (there have been several failed attempts to unionize the F/As). There may be others I can't recall off the top of my head.
And we don't have "closed" shops. That's, for the most part, prohibited by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. We have "agency shop" where being a card-carrying union member isn't required but a representation fee for non members is. And if I recall correctly, a refusal of a non member to pay this fee requires termination (I stand ready to be corrected on this but it's what I recall).
I'll mostly go back to minding my own business now.
No offense taken. I used the wrong word, did try to explain the representation fee, but did not do a great job. And I did not specifically say I was only talking about pilots.