Originally Posted by
skypilot35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevets
What I'm saying is that even at regionals, without a union, you will always get less than what you would get with a union. Both during good times and bad. And there are many other things that airline pilot unions provided that I believe are more important than a contract.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevets
I think your point would be difficult to prove or disprove without looking at each individual airlines pros and cons. Subjectively, outside looking in on some carriers with unions, ASA, ExpressJet, Envoy, Republic, Endeavor, PSA, Mesa, TSA; are these companies better off? Again, I am not arguing against unions, I am saying the current system is extremely flawed, it does not work. I understand that ALPA is "working" to better it, but I do not believe they are fully vested in the fight. It is beneficial to the Major airline pilot group to have pilots at the regional level making less money. Again, subjective observation.
These are all things that ALPA has been trying to and is still working on. But honestly, it doesn't help when the largest regional pilot group continually refuses to engage. How do you expect this to happen when 3200 of us don't participate? And now we are starting to see the consequences. DALPA has set a bar, albeit low, to have 35% of their new hires come from ALPA. Now you see this from the UAL MEC. I wouldn't be surprised of DALPA didn't follow on this idea and maybe set the bar a little higher.
Make no mistake, there are numerous discussions on the SAPA forum regarding whether or not to unionize. Mostly from the same individuals and honestly some of their arguments hold merit. However, and I cannot speak for an entire pilot group, but personally when I compare the way things are "run" at Skywest (non-union) to the way things are at other regionals (union) I have to ask you why would we unionize? More specifically, what would it do for the industry? I do not mean to say that there are not improvements to be made at Skywest, but comparatively speaking, this is a pretty good place to work.
Regarding the United MEC offering an open house for only ALPA regionals, I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. Will that force the Skywest pilots to unionize? No. I do believe that if the entire regional pilot group banded together as I mentioned above, then (I can only speak for myself) I would be interested.
I can say with absolute certainty that with a union we would have had a say in more than a few things:
PBS
ESPP
Pay, or lack there of.
Health Care
Bonus Plan
ect.
Problem is, that when you have only been there for awhile there is no reference to measure against, I can say with absolute certainty, that Chimps cost cutting has cost me more than 20K per year as a captain, and the QOL hits just keep on coming. Klen sends out the 1.5X letter, well guess what I won't pick up a single leg even at 2X. The airline under-staffs then relies on greedy pilots to fly hidden trips that would have been given to line holders who have been turned into reserves by management staffing shennagians.
The SAPA cheerleaders crow about the 1.95% they are saving, but its a faux savings, but by all means keep on keeping on. On another thread someone estimated that the new upgrade time is around 10.5 years, this should provide hours of whining and sniveling for the masses, plus lots of airport appreciation sits so the Ayn Rand crowd can feel better(objectively) about their lot in life.