I think it's a matter of strength of union and work rules.
You work for an airline with a contract that is decent and management / middle management / scheduling that doesn't openly hate you.
APA is not a union. They're a widebody CA protection group. The work rules are protected only by FAR 117, beyond that, it's mostly a scheduling free for all or "not implemented yet" (after 6 years) or "IT issues" for stuff that would help the pilots.
From this perspective, I absolutely agree with Ratner on this. Without unions artificially propping up the weak sisters whose only accomplishment is to be hired first, the strong would thrive and the weak would be gone. Some of the nonsensical language this group agreed to often makes me wonder if we'd be better off without any union at all. Because when you call the company on their BS, the union's response is typically "we asked and they said no" or "fly it and we'll grieve it later" or "sorry but there's no language for that."
If we had a union that could actually stand up to the company (as opposed to being in bed with them as a flow-thru program to management positions), it might seem worth it.
