Originally Posted by
Bus330
No devaluation taken
And mgmt will do as you said.And Regional mgmt will be all for it too.
ML pilots need to come up to bat for the RJ drivers.
You brought up Comair and I remember a group that started as a result of that-The RJ Defense Fund-They believed that ALPA did not have the RJ drivers best interest at heart. I tend to agree with that.
But the disdain that some ML pilots have for RJs and RJ operators only serves mgmt that wants to divide and conquer. We need to approach this not as a ML or RJ issue-but as a 121 issue. An airline is an airline. An airline pilot is an airline pilot.
The above takes unity and deep pockets for the PR blitz. The war chest needs to be cracked open to do this.But I fear that those who control that war chest will fail to see the importance of it. Many of the pilots on this site will never see a WB command. Many will be on RJs for their whole career.
The pay the top the most at the expense of the junior guys is a form of trickle down economics that has not seemed to work.
But as usual I could be wrong.
While you bring up interesting points, I must disagree with several things. I take exception that scope is impossible to put back into the bottle, so to speak. That was the entire point of the article at the beginning of this post. Fuel prices have rendered the 50 seaters obsolete. I can only speak for my own airline, but I would bet my house that we will not sign a contract that doesn't have mainline pilots flying 90 seat RJ's. That leaves the 70's, and to be honest, the economics aren't really very good on those either. From what I hear, we have offered to fly those jets in house at market rates. I'm not on the negotiating committee, but that's a rumor I've heard several times.
I think what you are advocating is already happening in the airline industry. If you look at the new rest rules, the regional pilots were far and away the biggest beneficiaries. Major airlines contracts are as restrictive as the new rules (if not more so) in most cases. Hopefully those rules, combined with the new set of FO standards coming in a couple of years, will tip the scales and make the outsourcing of higher paying major jobs less attractive.
You must also remember that we are not solely focused on the regional problem. There is a real and full-scale attack on our international flying as well with alliances like Death Star and OneWorld. Look no further than the Aer Lingus debacle to see the danger we face.
Lastly, from my perspective, I STRONGLY disagree that a certain national union has ignored the plight of the regionals. From where I sit, it seems the opposite problem is occurring. Just my .02