Originally Posted by
757Driver
Our job is to limit your flying, end of story. We've done a disastrous job doing so and year after year, have given away the store. Self-inflicted, absolutely but do not for one minute think that our end game is to not see your product disappear off the face of the earth. That in of itself, is a conflict of interest and the sole reason we should separate.
As a PS, worked with ALPA's Jim Johnson for many years and respect the man greatly.
Good words! :Why have we done a disastrous job? That's my question. How did this occur?
I just got finished watching the Colgon 3407 video. John Prater, former ALPA President had some interesting words. Keep in mind the big growth of the RJ industry and the out-sourcing of mainline flying occured under his "leadership." Recall further that the goal of the mainline carrier is to "shed costs". Instead of putting up a hand and saying "stop the insanity" ALPA, under Prater, just waived the industry along.
We didn't say STOP this madness. At the time of Colgan 3407 in Feb 2009, an RJ copilot made 16k a year. Rewind to when I was an EMB-120 Co-pilot at Continental Express, I made 13.8 a year in 1994. Insane. Mainline management's want to compete with discount carriers like JB and SWA. Their answer is to sub out the flying to the lowest bidder.
Read the research paper by someone who doesn't have a dog in the fight....
"Pilots working at major airlines are thwarting the growth of regional jets because they see them as a direct threat to their jobs. As shown earlier regional jets have created new routes, but have also replaced or supplemented traditional jet routes, taking jobs away from traditional jet pilots. In addition, traditional jet pilots can assume that they would have flown on some of the new routes created by incoming regional jets [19]. Finally, since most major airlines pay pilots based on the size of the aircraft they fly, the popularity of new smaller aircraft threatens not only their jobs, but their salaries as well. As a result, major airline pilots have fought back with scope clauses."
"Currently both Embraer and Bombardier are building larger regional jets, which can be seen in Figure 31. These new airplanes seat between 70 and 110 passengers, which means that the line between regional jets and narrow body traditional jets will blur further. Embraer believes that there is a capacity gap in the market and that the new 70 to 110 seat aircraft will help to fill that gap [23]. This new size of regional jets will further change the composition and performance range of the national fleet, making the future unclear. In addition, it was mentioned in chapter 4 that regional jets are most likely being sold at a discount or with highly favorable financing. If Embraer and Bombardier stop offering deals to stimulate the purchase of regional jets, the operational cost of these aircraft compared with narrow body jets will increase even further."
Source:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bcf...a47a7a5b4d.pdf
Take-away: Pilots use the tools they have in their tool belt to fight back against management. We currently use "SCOPE language" to both protect our revenue stream and the integrity of the career. The union is in charge of negotiating this scope language. It can negotiate ultra strong scope language to squeeze out and squash the RJ industry, or it can negotiate softer/kinder/gentler language that allows it both survive and thrive. Most mainline pilots want bullet proof scope language that ALPA is willing to go to war on. It could be another bloody civil war. Would ALPA go to war against itself to enforce the scope language? I think not. There in lies the ultimate conflict of interest.