Although still at AA, I echo another posters' endorsement for maintenance of ground based facilities as a future career.
One of the biggest problems with the A&P certification is that none of the traditional trades recognizes any of our training for cross certification and licensing into Electrical/Plumbing/Sheet Metal/Carpenters Unions. One could wonder why our AFL-CIO affiliation through the TWU has been soo ineffective in creating that transition: not. In any event, that barrier to exit creates, for many, an insurmountable economic barrier rather than an emotional one.
I've been working another job for over three years now and have been fortunate enough to book a higher hourly rate than what I'm paid at AA. I am now free of being forced into an air carrier geographic existence, meaning I have opportunities outside of where air carrriers perform their own work or ship it to some outside vendor.
I know that everyone cannot work two jobs, and I know that everyone is not willing to take any more time away from their families: but, we are in unusual times and that usually requires both unusual effort and unusual flexibility.
The upside is that cross training and being able to use many of the same skill sets creates a more durable sense of satisfaction while minimizing the downside exposure to the airline industrys' cyclical nature. I can now stay at AA until I reach my goals or leave if the situation becomes untenable and am blessed with a spouse that completely is in phase with the plan.
Restore and more is just a slogan until enough of us create an outside reality that allows us to actually walk away and/or shut it down.
If you are willing to expose your family to the reality of losing your job due to a strike: anything less than picking up a second job you can realistically transition to is a
Poker Tell. And, no, my other job is not as a Poker Player or IT guy for games of chance.
I just think AA and the TWU use a tremendous resource base for gauging whether a particular labor group is willing and able to leverage negotiations while negotiating; and, behaviour rather than rhetoric is my opinion of how they determine which squeeky wheel gets greased and which squeeky wheel gets hosed.
Thus far, we only "negotiated" a decent agreement twice during my 20+ years: 1993 extension, five years to top and an extra week of VC; and, 2001 due to AMFA at NWA.
If you choose to stay exclusively in the air carrier industry, stop worrying about furloughs...they will come and go. I'll shut up with two good references: 1) NHBBs said, you being affected is totally dependant on your number: when your number comes up-out the door you go; 2)Bob Crandall said, the airlines are a good place to make a living: they are a horrible long term investment.
