As per DiagonalLeg earlier, I have no real strong feelings in this fight.
I'm not working as a pilot, not looking like I ever will due to advancing years, necessity for return on my training investment and economic outlook, so I gave up my student membership.
The only real gripe I have with Balpa (as opposed to impressions of) is that they do absolutely nothing at all whatsoever (and I'm labouring this point deliberately) to help or protect anyone that doesn't actually have a CC - the student members, the qualified but unemployed or the single pilot Ops guys.
However, the main point I wanted to bring up is that time and time again we see comments like:
Quote:
In short, neither BALPA nor IPA have any power...
Have to agree 100% with this comment from al446...wake up guys to the 'games' at play in this industry...BALPA are nothing...
So, if Balpa are recognised - by those that actually support them!!! - as being of limited or zero power, then what the chuff is the point of them; of paying ANYTHING at all to them?
There is only any value at all, if they can and will fight the corner, surely? Otherwise, as others have mentioned you're better off saving your 1% per month and putting into a sinking fund for your own protection, perhaps organising some kind of co-operative agreement with fellow pilots that you'll support each other if the fees exceed what you've squirrelled?
To mix a metaphore nicely, if Balpa are powerless, then isn't it kind of like buying a dog with no teeth AND having to bark yourself?