Originally Posted by
Floyd
I'm confident the company would prefer to operate with zero work rules. The flexibility is worth a lot to them. Some pilots will always want money over quality of life. Many have never experienced quality work rules and it's incumbent upon the union and other pilots to explain the benefits.
The valuation of contractual items is a two way street.
The company may place a lower value on some work rules, but they don't care as long as the total labor cost is neutral in their calculations for maximum profitability. We're all just widgets; the company doesn't care if there are 6000 pilots or 12000 pilots, just as long as profit is maximized. In fact, for overall reliability, the company would almost certainly prefer to have more pilots but the total cost of pilots is more than just hourly pay; our benefits package skews the company toward minimizing the number of pilots on property.
And as far as work rules go, some pilots place a very high value on some work rules while others place zero value on some work rules. The perfect example is reserve rules. How much value are reserve rules to senior lineholders?