Roundup

Unfortunately ALPA lost the confidence of too many U.S. pilots during the 80's. And regarding their largest weapon, the strike, that's gone too.

UalHvy

Hey....Weren't we encouraged to vote for an administration that was supposed to be on the side of labor? What happened? Looks like the only side they are on is the Middle Eastern one.

Arado 234

let's not forget that the current working conditions at the ME3 are so awesome, that those ME3 don't have to worry about attrition much! (major sarcasm)

Laker24

I work for a ME3 carrier. I've been furloughed from 3 different US Airlines. I am a third generation pilot and the two generations before me were very active in Alpa fighting for pilots' working conditions.

I guess people forget the past quickly but when I was furloughed the third time there were virtually no jobs to be had in the US. After 1 year on the street I went to the ME. Saying that I should be considered a scab would be like saying all RJ pilots should be blacklisted and put on a scab list for agreeing to fly jets for less than 30K/year. There comes a point when you have to provide an income for your family. By the way I never applied to fly RJ's because I thought they were ruining the profession back in the early 2000's.

Laker24

That's a strange perspective. Why don't you like expats?

An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing, as an immigrant, in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland").

LGApilot

Laker what He meant to say is that he is a Xenophobe. So since he's a xenophobe he doesn't like people who like to live abroad and experience different cultures aka expats.

LGApilot

With a worldwide applicant pool, I don't think the ME3 will ever have issues with staffing. Even though EK pilots fly a lot, it's still a wayyyy better gig than flying for any regional. Heck, EK has many pilots from foreign flag carriers flying there.

baseball

I call it the X pat gig

It's allot like ABBA. Sooner or later you get tired of playing the gigs. The rock band breaks up and you go your separate ways.

You can't change your birth day. For guys out flying for POS airlines for POS pay with no stability doing the Xpat gig may be a good decision.

I have met some former Eastern, TWA, and Pan Am Xpats overseas and in various customs/immigration lines all over the world. They all seem like class act folks that found their way over to Thai Airlines, or Signapore, or Korean, Or Cathay, etc. for one reason or another.

I don't blame an out of work Eastern pilot for trying to keep his career moving. It wasn't his fault his airline went under. When your airline goes tits up, you can sink or swim. If you can't decide you may try and tread water. Treading water for some guys is doing the X pat gig at JAL while times are bad.

our career is more portable and transferable than you think. If you got into this business when times were bad, you can either make lemonade out of lemons by finding an xpat gig, or you can go drive a truck for substandard wages due to NAFTA.

I may retire from my US airline at some point and go fly Xpat. We'll see when I have to cross that road. It looks like it could be fun for the right airline, but in their left seat.

Roundup

Who cares who owns the airline? If your Un-employed because of Delta or Southwest why should you support.

iceman49

Thinking if the TPP passes, the effects will make the ME3 and Norwegian argument a drop in the bucket.