Originally Posted by
Singlecoil
That is very true. I think we are the lowest paid pilots in the industry right now or soon will be. You can pretty much count on the fact that during a contract cycle in the future, Alaska pilots will be the lowest paid at some point as others leapfrog and we struggle to keep up. It does seem management uses the three guides you mention to assess how they are doing. Unfortunately for them, if there truly is an industry-wide shortage of talent out there, all three of those chickens will come home to roost simultaneously, making it impossible for them to staff the airline. See Horizon for an example. Once they get to that point, there is no easy solution.
We will be...by any measure....Our problem is how we view ourselves and how we believe they need to view us....We need to stop viewing ourselves as somehow adding value/leading/necessary/ important and just view ourselves as employees who can and should extract substantial wage and benefit gains from our employer...Our only "value" is that we cannot all be replaced at once. We should have been beating that drum loudy the day after Kasher released us from indebted servitude.....There is no "B" team in management as one uninformed poster mentioned.....Facts are this...They know that for 50.1% of the pilot group it is more important to be an "Alaska" pilot than it is to be a pilot with great benefits/ work rules/wages....They know that most Alaska pilots believe to be a cut above orher pilots and are willing to trade contract gains for perceived status....They also know that there is a steady supply of talented pilots that dont have all the bs window dressing like college degrees/community service/internal recommendations/ irrational cravings that the current crowd have.....They can fill a class a month for the rest of time without another interview......Thats the story period