Originally Posted by
dckozak
Seniority systems are not the problem with pilot pay, its lack of resolve and successful anti union laws/court rulings and, sad to say, lack of (collective) community within our own ranks.
No...pay should be based on supply and demand...it's not an entitlement. Seniority system artificially lowers demand by locking pilots into jobs they don't like...except for some. This results in artificially low pay based on the supply of pilots.
Want to see what a non seniority system looks like? Already been alluded to in a earlier post; go read the Corporate forum, read the posts pertaining to pay vs seat and equipment, than compare it to airline pay. Oh yea, also ask about time off. You'll hear some good stories about great pay and time off, but you'll hear a lot more of the opposite.
Compare it to what airlines? Certainly not more than half the airline pilots employed in this country. Clearly the jobs are good at the high end. Most professional airline pilots will never see those jobs.
ALPA, unions, and seniority lists may have their faults. Regional pilots are under paid, but I think your looking in the wrong place to paint the unions that represent these pilots as to why the reason things aren't better.
This seems to be a common theme...or misconception...that unions and seniority systems are one and the same. I'm not blaming unions, I'm blaming seniority systems.
Airline management's ability to whipsaw different airline/pilot groups, flying the same equipment on the same routes but under different (competing) contracts is the real problem. The Comair strike educated the industry about not letting any one contractor have too much power . The industry learned and now every legacy airline has multiples of feeders, all biding against each other and all (at the labor level) powerless to force change with a strike.
Yes...the seniority system is what makes this even possible, otherwise it wouldn't work for management. Pilots wouldn't have to strike, they could just walk...it's called a "mass exodus" in non seniority based environments and it happens all the time...the best and brightest talent just leaves and goes to work for the competition who is more than happy to hire them at equal or better pay and position. This seems to be a concept of a free market economy that completely eludes most airline pilots in this country.
Thats not the fault of the seniority system nor the lack of interest in unionized pilots for better terms, its just the way it is.
This is what everyone who supports the seniority system seems to have said in this thread....that there's nothing you can do about it anyway so just deal with it. Like a worker in a communist society. Stalin and Mao would be proud.