Some good points in that last post and in many of the above writings.
Still remains tho' that when the AIPA faction left the AFAP many years back because grubby things like "pay, conditions and scope clauses" were beneath them...the rot set in. It has taken a long time for the effects to work their way through the system but those left at home are in the midst of it now with worse to come. '89 was but a milestone along the road.
There was a time when either the President of the AFAP or the VP Technical could pick up the phone and speak to the minister or an airline CEO. When there wouldn't be an airline or safety related seminar or working group witout an AFAP member.
That time could come again, not to herald in an era of uniform wages and conditions...that has been and gone...but of decent conditions appropriate to the airline business involved, respect and professional treatment both ways.
And for those wondering about conditions in GA...there's only been one group fighting hard for many years on that task and that's the AFAP. Many of us, as airline pilots in the 70's and 80's never did get back our 1% directly. It subsidized the industry work as a whole, especially GA. That subsidy was a self help concept long forgotten by many who felt that they had no place in a "union".
There's one constant in all of the posts here...."if you don't learn from history, you'll learn from history".
Safe flying