ia,

Of course it is, because we as a group so readily accept the notion that XYZ is ok because you are junior and we've all been there before. It is something that we really believe in between ourselves, unfortunately those that we negotiate with (company and sometimes the government) find it silly, antiquated and use it to negotiate things away from us piece by piece. Look at how they broke down the pax carriers after 9/11. First the no furlough deals were broken which was ok because such things happen to junior people and they'll be senior one day. Then went nearly unlimited 50 seat RJ flying to 'stay competitive' and keep the company alive so that those junior furloughed folks would have something to come back to('they'll thank us for it later!'). Then came the bigger RJ's and parking of the DC-9/737 style planes and either furloughs or pushing the active junior pilots into subsidiary carriers at sub-regional wages/rules-that was ok because 'at least they have a job, at least we have the flying and the excess money will allow us to order new mainline planes once we get out of bankruptcy.' Next came the narrowbody pay, rigs, and workrules, followed by the widebody pay, differentials, and other perks. This all led to what they wanted in the first place, the A funds. All very orderly and very predictable. The worst thing about it is that neither Worth, nor Prater nor much of our list seem to understand how and why it was done. I'm not advocating getting rid of the seniority system, that won't work. We do however need to negotiate from the bottom up to counter the other side of the table who negotiates from the top down b/c they know we lap it up. I'd rather have OUR bottom come up our top vs. the other way around which has happened at the pax carriers.