Charlie,
I agree with many of your points, it seems that AFAP has had a long time to try to increase the award for - it's still pretty low, so maybe they have failed. I agree that AFAP could be more active in persuing an Award increase
However...
Do you really think starting another union separately for GA would work? Who is going to start it? Have a chat to some of your collegues and see how much unity there is?, think about trying to harness all this ambivilance and then trying to push for more money. This is one of the issues with GA and probably one of the reasons why the award is quite low. So many pilots employed in GA don't care - they bitch and moan about it at work but when it comes time to change anything there's no guts for a fight.
I don't know - but i imagine that this goes for AFAP also. It is member driven - if members who are employed in GA don't ask or push AFAP to persue more money for them chances are it won't happen. If all the pilots employed in GA joined a more "aggressive" union, then sat around and weren't involved in it and did nothing other than moan to themselves about how bad they are paid do you really think anything would change?
What may be useful is getting a GA representative on the board of AFAP so there is a voice to call for change within our section of the industry - the majority of the board/directors/whatever seem to come from regionals or airlines, i don't think i've seen any instructors or charter pilots try to get elected.
I have found AFAP to be very helpful over the last couple of weeks as I have sought more information regarding the Award review and enterprise bargaining process. However i have had to go to them and ask for the information.
As others have said it is a union... it isn't a separate or a fragment. If we want things to change then we should try and stick with what we've got - an GET INVOLVED!!
rant over.....