Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I am not sure about the pay them accordingly part. For almost the entire history of SW they have paid them well below the industry average. They have never offered to put them at the top of the industry. They got there buy accident and those very fuel hedges that helped them became a double edge sword on pilot costs. You can't ask for paycuts when your rolling in money. Neither SW management or even their union like their present position in the pilot pay arena. They would much prefer we pass them back up so they can regain their historical cost advantage and start back to their years of 10 percent growth instead of mergers.
Sailing, you need to go to what Herb Keller told his first pilots when he started the airline. These pilots bought it too, and now are quite wealthy. He told them he wanted to pay them differently that the industry had historically paid pilots, if they agreed to this, they would make more money than they ever would have under the typical methodology that most airlines used. To date he has been correct in that statement.
I also am of the school of though that there are many ways to skin this cat, an the LUV model is not the only one. I take the point that they found a different way to compensate their pilots and it has returned a nice return for their pilots.
Hourly they have historically been below the legacies,and it has been only the last five years that they have been above us. Pilots have a short memory. I believe the that if our union stated something that told their pilots that first they heard them and second they would carry their fight forward much of the consternation would ebb away. Or simply put, scope sales are over, and we understand you want your career back. Whomever said that would get a bronze statue in Herndon. The issue is no one has to date had the gumption to say that, and as a result pilots are grabbing at straws.
Like I have said, there are tons of really good ideas out there to enhance our pilots careers. Our union needs to listen to them and not discredit these ideas because of the ideas were not organically produced. The unions job is simple, protect, promote and grow a pilots career.