Originally Posted by
tonsterboy5
There hasn’t been a collective agreement in what? 10 years so the people here now had zero say in the current insurance. Also, I believe we should have both great rates and insurance but if the company wants to average let’s say 80k per employee something has to give. What benefits a greater percentage of the group? What’s more likely to get pilots in the door that want to buy a house and pay off college? The airline needs pilots to keep showing up to stay in business. Nothing talks like $$$
It doesn’t matter what the company wants to spend ... it matters what they have to spend to deliver operational results. That number gets higher and higher the longer the movement happens off the top, the longer other airlines contracts catch up to and pass ours, and the longer AWACs reputation degrades.
We are still working under the existing CBA. That was shared with you when you come to work here and is your contract. It doesn’t matter how old it is...it is still the AWAC contract.
Yes the airline needs pilots. That is the only leverage we as a pilot group have. Therefore the more desperate they get the more money in total compensation they need to throw our way. We shouldn’t let them out of the pickle they’ve made over the last 15+ years by giving up something that is very expensive to them and very beneficial over the long run to us as a pilot group (insurance). If we definitively take that off the table they will eventually
a) have to give us the rates we deserve while leaving the insurance alone, or
b) cease to exist and we will all end up at one of the other carriers you seem to be wishing to emulate.
These folks aren’t dumb ... the reason there is always money in the banana stand is that they don’t give away anything they don’t have to. Stand together and call the bluff. Fly the contract. The rest will take care of itself. The biggest danger to us right now is being bought off too cheaply or with our own money (insurance savings paying for rate increases while management pockets a cut).