Nationwide Pilot Union?
Would anyone else on here be in favor of a Nationwide Pilot's Union and therefore a Nationwide Seniority List??? Okay, so if you're at Delta, Southwest, Fedex, UPS, etc. or you have lot's of seniority where-ever then probably not. But hear me out . . .
Imagine a master seniority list. For most of us our airline will get sold, merge, or otherwise fail and we'll find yourself out on the street. With a master seniority list perhaps we don't have to start back at the bottom. It might also discourage the growing trend where management subcontracts out work from the majors to the regionals, and then from one regional to a lower cost regional.
So how would something like this work? The devil is figuring out where everyone would start out on the seniority list. For guys who just got hired somewhere this isn't really a big deal. For guys who have 30 years in someplace, this is a huge deal. Perhaps a plan which would factor in each pilot's years of service and then use age as a tie breaker. Also, there would have to be some crazy formula to prevent a senior guy from getting furloughed at a one airline and then going right tot he top of somebody else's seniority list.
The goal of this whole thing is to help stabilize this career and stop management from exploiting the pilots. Remember Eastern, TWA, PanAM, etc. At one point those airlines were the best of the best and everybody wanted to work there. If you had 20-30 years in and were getting ready to retire when they went under . . . well you get the idea. Or how about the guys who have 10 years in and a family to support? How about this Midwest guys when they got bought? Anyone know where the Frontier thing is going? How many of us UAL guys are still on furlough?
If you've got seniority at a great airline there is very little incentive for you to join a Nationwide Union with a Master Seniority List. However, what would there be to lose? You sign up, and as long as your airline and union are strong the Master List doesn't really come into play.
Sure we might lose a bit of seniority from time to time but at least we wouldn't lose it all!