mesaba, the sacrificial lamb?

[big jimmy]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060720/mesaba_labor.html?.v=1

 

[Kev3188]

Talk is cheap, Duane....

In any event, I say let 'er rip....

 

[ThirdSeatHero]

At Mesaba, the union said a new first officer -- the lowest-ranked, lowest-paid pilot at the airline -- would make $16,417 a year under the company's proposal, down from $19,337 under the current contract.

$16,417???

That works out to less than $8 an hour!

All the training required to become a licenced pilot, the time the money, and they want you to work for less than $8 an hour???

When will these brain trusts in management realize that people won't work for these wages, or more appropriately, CAN'T work for these wages???

You can almost hear it now........

".........well its a small plane, we can hire pilots with fewer hours"

 

[Bob Owens]

$16,417???

That works out to less than $8 an hour!

All the training required to become a licenced pilot, the time the money, and they want you to work for less than $8 an hour???

When will these brain trusts in management realize that people won't work for these wages, or more appropriately, CAN'T work for these wages???

You can almost hear it now........

".........well its a small plane, we can hire pilots with fewer hours"

Sad fact is that some people are so eager to fly that they will fly for free, which at $16k is year is pretty much the case.


Where pilots screwed up is by designing their career to be so end loaded. As long as you have guys earning up to $300k, even if its only a handful you will have guys lining up to fly for $16k a year with the hope that once they put their time in they too will eventually get that $300k seat.

A better strategy is to make the pay more standardized, 747, 737 both jobs require the same skill, same responsibility same consequences if you screw up, same pay with minimum hours, should apply.

APLAs elitist mentality within itself (RJ vs Mainline)will be the undoing of the profession.