Originally Posted by
full of luv
I think it's more than the threat of strike. As the majors grew wholly owned regionals, they learned that the real way to get cutthroat labor rates was by pitting regional vs. regional in a succession of RFP's for contract flying. This allowed the regionals to continually ask for concessions or at least moderate wages by having the threat of flying leaving if your "too expensive". Hence with 7 regional partners, it keeps them all on their toes.
Yup, and look at what happened to the one wholly owned regional who went on strike for higher wages/benefits. Where are they now?
There is no way that paying for 7 different feeds with 7 different management teams, 7 different training depts, MX depts, scheduling depts, etc. makes any economic sense, unless it keeps the overall labor costs below the break even point of taking that flying in house.
It also keeps any one or two of the seven feeders from having any leverage when it comes to seeking higher wages, or threatening the mainline feed if they were to walk during contract negotiations. It also provides a 'threat' to the mainline pilots, if they ever were to walk, that the 7 feeders would pick up the struck mainline domestic flying, and our International Code Share partners would pick up the struck international flying.
It's called whipsaw, and it's been going on for nearly as long as the airline industry has been in existence.
Being part of a National Union was supposed to put a stop to it...um...not so much.