Originally Posted by
use2fly
I completely agree with your logic, but having worked for a non-union shop, I don't think it's realistic. We had a captain refuse an aircraft coming out of maintenance because he thought it was unsafe, he got fired. Many of us threatened to quit over that and he was re-hired.
We won some small battles but lost the overall fight. The airline eventually closed its doors.
Skywest makes it work, but I think they are to big to risk totally screwing over their employees.
Today is different, it's a pilots market out there and will be for a long time. Someone in a different thread basically stated that the new currency is pilots, who has them?
Using reverse logic, one could argue that having a union is something the company should have to pay for, ie it does more for their benefit than the pilots benefit.
So what would happen if 50 pilots decided all on their own to call in sick. Who does the company complain too? Who do they sue?
The company is accustomed to dealing with pilots as a whole, not pilots individually one on one.
I don't believe skywest is a good model to represent my theory, skywest I'm sure while unionless per say does have an in house authority of some kind. But what would happen if say skywest or republic, both non alpa airlines, decided to do just that and dump their unions and in house authorities? Would they both go out of business?
Another question. How does the RLA apply to an airline without a union or other bargaining authority? What items apply, which do not? Which do not even make sense?
I would really like to hear others opinions as well on the topic.