Originally Posted by
Lambourne
Where was the outrage by regional pilots when you guys were growing at historical high rates in the early 2000's? All you guys were willing to accept jobs at regionals at low pay to get yourself some jet time. The major pilots had little leverage in our negotiations when you had a line of wet behind the ears pilots all willing to throw themselves into a jet cockpit for a quick upgrade.
Just because your pre-planned career path didn't materialize isn't always the fault of someone else. The regional pilots are culpable for a great deal of what is taking place currently. They were all willing to accept low wages in exchange for experience in the hopes of landing a major job. The major pilots are finally taking back scope and there is a realization by airline managements that outsourced flying wasn't the cure they thought it was. As fewer jobs at the regionals exist and more mainline jobs are created there will be a significant number of RJ pilots that won't make it to the next level for various reasons. The number of major jobs won't equal the lost RJ jobs.
Why do the regional pilots want to always be portrayed as a victims. Were they so focused on SJS they couldn't see the future.
In the early 2000's places like Comair, Eagle, and Continental Express were the only civilian path to their respective majors. In the case of CE, the rug was pulled out from under us by CAL revoking flow-thru and spinning off the CE into Expressjet. ALL the pilots at the majors sold scope. ALPA heralded increasingly bad regional contracts as "landmarks that would ensure pilots have jobs". ALPA did nothing to even try and increase the QOL at the regionals. They spent money inflating giant animals to put outside airline HQs, but didn't spend a thin dime to advertise the poor pay problems of outsourcing. ALPA has a crap PR machine. Only the crash of Colgan 3407 got the public motivated to slow the race to the bottom. ALPA was totally ineffective. They could not even get known crewmwmember through--an ExpressJet FO did that, by simply refusing to be groped on the way to work. ALPA DID take credit for his efforts, though. Most of us at the regional level believe ALPA has not only failed us, but that it never really tried in the first place.