Well we now have an opportunity to see if Bobb is really serious about ALPA. Polar just filed yet another grievance. Is Bobb going to put his money where his mouth is and use the ALPA legal team?
While I support Bobb in his efforts for his pilots and FEs, I believe that using my dues to fund an outside attorney, to file a grievance with a remedy that will harm me is well beyond the legal limits of the duty of fair representation required of ALPA by law.
All decisions are based on emotion. Given the facts of a situation, we weigh them and give them a level of credence based on our emotions. In this case the Atlas pilots are angry that ALPA has actively worked against us at every turn.
In the case of the disputes between Polar and Atlas, ALPA should have recused themselves and required each pilot group to assess their members for the costs of their outside attorneys. That happened during the merger talks - yet Polar has continued to get funding from ALPA for their outside attorney to file myriad grievances. And the suggested remedies always seem to come at the expense of the Atlas Pilots or FEs. So in effect, through ALPA, the Atlas pilots are paying to harm themselves. This above all else is driving the move away from ALPA.
The bottom line is that Bobb is being played by ALPA. They don't like him and he doesn't like them. This alone should be reason for the Polar pilots to vote IBT. Couple that with the caste system and politics at ALPA; and the fact that pressure from the many members of the IBT who are not subject to the RLA can be used in negotiation, and one wonders why anyone would want to vote for ALPA.