Crew Leasing
Nitty & DBW..
I would think that the Teamsters position would be the same as ALPA's. Representing a crew force from a crew leasing company with a contract that is not attached to any airline by scope would not be desirable. The contract is pretty much worthless without it.
I would also think that the Atlas crewmembers would want to get the best contract possible from this merger. By changing to the Teamster's representation for the merger, I believe we have played into the company's hands.
IMHO, I don't have big problems with being represented by IBT, as I already have been for about 15 years. They were mostly interested in collecting our dues, though. We have been better off with ALPA.
I know that the Atlas crews think they got a bad deal with ALPA. I don't think it was anything personal, ALPA just knew where this was all headed.
The best path for all of us is to merge under ALPA, then lets talk about changing to IBT at a later time. Cato is gone now. We don't have to do it his way.