Originally Posted by SkyHigh
StearmanDriver
You know that I am a huge fan, and we all know that what you speak of is true. It seems to me however that it is the young new hire that would take most of the brunt of an action as you mentioned. Union or no in the end we all are a union of one and have to act in our own best short term interest. The industry has simply too many hopefuls. You would have to convince student pilots to give up on their dream without even getting a chance at it. How are you going to ask potential new hires to fall on the sword for the betterment of those left behind? What about working pilots? Could you asses a lottery system where every third pilot has to resign in order to strengthen the ranks? From your position it is easy to make those choices. You have satisfied your dream, you have a strong resume to fall back on. Most don't. They have maybe one chance to get their career off the ground. It would be a very hard sell to convince them to rock the boat before ever starting.
Our problem isn't limited to any single company. It is national and becoming world wide in scope. If Expressjet will not do the flying for the price offered then someone else will. If an American company can't meet the cost cuts then perhaps a european company with Chinese crews would. In the end any of us has only one vote. I think we all need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves where is the industry going, and do I really want to be here in five years? Wishful thinking and strong words are reassuring but an honest look into the future might be sobering for ourselves and the next generation of pilots.
SKyHigh
Yes, we can try to educate the new folks (especially the PFT and "academy grads"), but we can't reach them and they wouldn't listen anyway until they get on property and see what's going on. Ultimately we have to take control of our own industry from the top down...
1) Majors need to regain scope on RJ's (preferably anything > 50 seats)
2) Regionals need scope to prevent freedoms and GoJets...do YOU have scope? If not, you're headed for an @ss-kicking...
2) Regionals need to strive for a common "baseline" pay and work rules package...that way any competetive dynamics will be driven by operational effeciency, not whipsawing the labor.
3) Unions need to demand that new-hires have ATP mins and written.
If entry level FO's made at least $40K, competion at the entry level would go up, and we'd get smarter, more experienced new-hires who would be less likely to roll over for the company. All new hires would have ATP mins and the PFT kids could go fly microjets for $1.25/h until they have ATP mins.