You misunderstood. I don't really believe them.

But if we say we do, if we give them everything they could possibly want in their wildest dreams, then basically no one will show up for this silliness anymore-- new pilots already have stopped showing up, and current pilots are leaving by the bushel. At XJT we have senior management asking (pleading?) for pilots to fly extra, because they have no present solution other than said pleading.

If the managements get what they want, they're the ones who are completely screwed, which is perfectly fine with me. They fail at that point, and the career joke is over. It is the backward logic of all of this that fails any test of intellectual review. It makes almost no sense, other than concessions are management's first, most stupid, most uncreative option for all problems. If they set contracts so far backward and so low that they cannot sustain the minimum required level of voluntary employment, then fine, game on. If there is no reason to show up, no one will. XJT management has no plan whatsoever for hiring or retention and Eagle management is trying to fool their people into a false belief of career advancement in exchange for surrender.

None of it works until a real career path is established, which is what none of these companies has done. Eagle may be closest, but not truly there yet. Eagle guys are closer to AA seniority numbers (today, not a flow-thru promise) than they yet realize. That should be the goal.