Originally Posted by
NineGturn
That has absolutely nothing to do with a free market system of supply and demand. You are describing a seniority system where senior pilots are rewarded with larger equipment to justify higher pay, not a system where the highest skilled or most qualified pilots are rewarded with the best jobs in an open and free market. To believe they are the same thing means you would have to confuse seniority with experience, ability and qualifications.
No you didn't make any point because you are describing people who accomplish higher pay through performance and competition in a free market, not people who achieved those levels by seniority alone.
A pro football player can't bid the quarterback slot based on time with the team alone. News anchors don't get their job based on seniority or longevity.
In fact these professionals are often hired from a competing company, network, or team and placed directly in those positions over colleagues who have worked longer and harder than they.
Exactly! So let's get rid of it altogether.
When I see a senior pilot hiding behind his seniority number I see a guy who is afraid to be compared on an open market, a guy who is afraid that his co pilot may be better than him or that RJ pilot who does 6 landings a day can outperform him in the sim. I see pilots who don't have the confidence to compete for a better job and pretend they are so good they no longer have to.
Personally I believe in a free and open market. Bring it on!
Now for the million-dollar question: what's the performance metric? On-time or completion factor can't be used, since there are way too many variables out of the pilot's control, and encouraging people to cut corners to enhance performance will inevitably compromise safety, so that's a big no-go item. Making us do aerobatics in the sim? Maybe, but you better start incorporating aerobatic training in to PPL or CPL under part 61 or 141 somehow, since I'll bet most of us have never done any of that kind of flying. We all have to do essentially the same PC ride in the sim, a few approaches, stalls, steep turns, V1 cut, etc. so it's hard to distinguish yourself there. How do you determine who's the best when it comes to bigger planes, CA upgrades, etc. outside of seniority? I'm pretty sure ALPA went though that debate in the 30s when they formed, and settled on the seniority system. Is it perfect? Hell no! Is there anything better that would actually work in the real world? I can't think of anything. It certainly can be improved, most likely through some kind of "global" seniority list within each major union, ALPA, IBT mainly since I think all others are internal to their respective companies. If you are an ALPA member, your seniority started the day you got hired at an ALPA carrier, and as long as you never joined another pilot union, you keep accumulating seniority in ALPA as long as you are actively flying for an ALPA carrier, even if you are on furlough. If you leave for a non-ALPA carrier, for example, you start over at the bottom of that carrier's union's list, and if you go back to ALPA later, you start over at the bottom with ALPA, or at least you get no credit for the time you spent away. Perfect? No, I'll admit, but more in line with how seniority works with other unionized industries, electrical workers and such. At least as far as pay rates are concerned, it makes sense since you don't have to bite the bullet and go back to food-stamp first year pay every time you change airlines as long as you stay with ALPA carriers or IBT carriers exclusively.