Originally Posted by
ogilthorpe
The company has already demonstrated (via QX pilots and the Seattle rampers) that if a cheaper option comes their way they will take it. I don't see anything that would keep them from doing the same to us over time. Also, I would respectfully submit that you're setting the bar too low if you are taking the position that anything short of furloughs or fewer airframes is not a problem to our pilot group.
Ok...before this gets out of hand, let me establish a few things:
- I am not against a scope clause
- I do not unilaterally trust management
- I respect the pilot employees choices and sacrifices who have paved the way to present day
But looking forward, a discussion on what are the goals of the pilot group through future contracts is what I'm addressing. As far as the company goes, replacing 737s for say ERJ flying is not a very realistic option...both as a business practice or towards the profitability of the investors. Taking emotion away, the demonstrated goals to investors (the principal benefactors of their decisions) does not include reducing the image of an independent airline to regional operation. Decisions in the last 2 years have wholly demonstrated this. While DL is using regional carriers to push into AS market share, AAG is looking to respond in kind with QX...now pitched as "are you in or out" to the QX employees. Yet with even our market and operations growing at unprecedented rates for AS, now we are worried about our jobs at AS requiring scope? I don't see that as our immediate threat which requires a line in the sand during contract negotiations.