Originally Posted by
galaxy flyer
If there was any valid opportunity to have a NSL, it was as part of the Deregulation Act. But, each MEC thought they were "golden" and didn't need a NSL for protection. Not happening now or in the future.
GF
'Nailed it, GF.
The NSL should have absolutely been a non-negotiable requirement for enactment of the Deregulation Act.
(And as somebody so perfectly put it, ALPA became obsolete the day that legislation was signed. From then on, it was every man for himself, the "union" be damned.)
Also, it probably would have been a lot easier for pilots to swallow it at that time (though not without the usual complaining).
Most airline pilots were pretty much in the same boat at that time, with regard to pay and QOL, thanks to the regulated environment (although I'm sure that many PAA and TWA pilots probably looked down their noses at OZA and MOH pilots).
And the kudzu-like spread of regional and low-cost carriers was still far in the future.
Not surprisingly, it was the pilots at the airlines that began to struggle post-Deregulation (TWA, PAA, BNF, EAL) that started calling for a NSL. And it was the pilots at the airlines that were growing like weeds thanks to Deregulation (PAI, AAA*) that wanted no part of it.
"Those old farts aren't coming over here and taking my seat!", was the battle-cry of the "boy captains" at the fast-growing major airlines.
Ironically -- and again, not surprisingly -- it was the pilots of that latter group of airlines, who had pooh-poohed the idea of a NSL in the late 80's, who were now clamoring for one in the post-9/11 stagnation and bankruptcy era.
IOW, that same PAI or AAA "boy captain", who didn't want the older PAA or TWA guy coming over and stealing his seat 20 years ago, now felt as if he should be entitled to waltz over to FEX or DAL and assume his place on their seniority lists, ahead of the younger pilots at those carriers.
As it was, is now, and ever shall be, the only thing that's "fair" with regard to seniority at any particular time is whatever happens to benefit
me at that time.
*
For our younger colleagues, AAA was the ALPA designator for the original Allegheny Airlines, later USAir and US Airways, right up until that carrier's separation from ALPA.
It stemmed from the airline's name at the time its pilots joined ALPA, which was All American Airways. PAI was the ALPA designator for the original Piedmont Airlines, which merged with USAir in 1988.