markkus757 said:
The pilots would be the hardest group IMO to replace. If they can get most everyone else on board, they can pick off the others not ready to play in the game.
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Maybe a few years ago that was true.
Mechanics will get sucked up by other industries, within a few years they will be at or above where they were, except they will be home at night, the weekends and holidays. Where is the pilot going to match what he was getting under the same conditions? Just as they were so willing to give in at the start they will continue to give. They wont strike if they think there is any chance whatsover that they would lose, and under current conditions the chances are good they would. If they did call for one most would run across their own lines like they did at Continental back in the 80s.
If it did go to a strike NWA would probably liquidate and transfer their assetts to Delta. Over there the ALPA would welcome the opportunity to bring Delta pilots back to work, brotherhood be damned. The ground workers dont have unions so it would be like busting all the unions at once and creating a megga non-union carrier. A merger without the headaches of blending the workforce.
The writing is on the wall, and ALPA and the IAM helped write it, the days of good pay in the airline industry are numbered. Even for the pilots. Just as they can import Indians for Flight attendants and ship maintenance overseas they can import pilots too if needed.
Compare a commuter pilot to a mainline. Big difference in pay for basically the same job. Compare the diffrence between a commuter mechanic and a mainline mechanic, sure there is a difference but not nearly as much, as a matter of fact NWA is paying the scabs commuter rates. So guess what! Commuter pay rates are coming to a mainline cockpit near you!
Why should a pilot on a bigger plane get paid a lot more than one on a smaller plane? If anything its more automated, therefore easier. I taxi all sorts of aircraft, size is more relevant on the ground than up there in the sky, I get paid the same whether its an MD-80 or a 777.
The fact is this is a carryover from the Regulated era. Pilots got increases in pay as the company invested in heavier faster aircraft. They correctly argued that the faster aircraft would reduce their income or their work unless they put in such measures. Nobody else got things like that. The company made the investment in newer faster technology and the pilots reaped the rewards.Once jets were introduced pilot pay took off. Dont get me wrong, pilots should get paid well, but the difference between what an MD-80 or commuter pilot who flies his but off, up and down all day and the guy who sits in the Caddillac of the fleet making less flights in a month than the MD-80 guy does in a week is absurd. Flying the big birds should be considered the rewards of seniority in itself, there is no real justification for the disparity. Dont bother with the "more passengers and responsibility" line. Whether its an RJ or a Jumbo the pilot is usually the first one.
I'm sure there are a lot of pilots out there that see whats to come. And they also see that their Union leadership is doing nothing to stop it. Lets not forget that ALPA represents a lot of the commuter pilots too, and there have been lawsuits filed between the two groups. So in other words there are hard feelings between the two. The commuter guys feel like they have been sold short to protect the higher paid guys at the mainlines. The plain fact of the matter is that for the sake of the few who make it to the left seat in the biggest plane many others go underpaid, but those rates are now going to be the target for the industry because they know that they can get people. Dont you think that the commuter pilot would welcome an International layover even at the same pay instead of up and down all day?There is no way that they are only going after the "easier" targets. If you think that your "25%" hit you hard just wait, all you have to do is look at all those ALPA members flying their buts off for a fraction of what you get paid and see your future.
