Originally Posted by
ZapBrannigan
Anybody who is hard set against shared sacrifice to prevent furloughs should post your date of hire so we can see if you truly believe it’s not worth trying to save a fellow pilot from furlough, or if you know YOU’RE safe and don’t want anybody to move your cheese.
i came here for one reason and one reason only. Job security and a pilot group that was known for taking care of each other. If the forums are any indication, it’s just another pilot group no different from the ALPA groups I was furloughed from. “I’ve got mine. Tough luck”
I don't think you need to worry about whether or not the pilot group will vote in concessions. I can almost guarantee you that they will. It's the Lucy and Charlie Brown thing. It's just what we do.
That doesn't mean that furloughs will be prevented via concessions. It also doesn't mean that concessions are the right move. What became of the pilot profession in the decade following the concessions agreed to as a result of 9/11? What will concessions cure? What will the profession look like if we collectively respond to what is, by many accounts, a more significant industry event than 9/11 by agreeing to a similar or deeper level of concessions?
I'm not saying that furloughs don't suck or "sucks to be you" or anything like that. And ya, I could also end up being furloughed. But it has taken more than a decade to get back to some vague semblance of what this profession was like pre-9/11 in terms of pay and work rules, etc. And I think most would agree it hasn't fully recovered on a profession-wide level in the US. If I'm furloughed, I want to come back to a job that's worth coming back to. I don't know about you.
As far as SWA being special in terms of taking care of each other: I dunno. SWA is my second airline. From my perspective, there have been really cool guys and really big richards at both places. I was also military. About the same thing there, but honestly, probably more guys willing to go out of their way in the military. Just my experience. Ymmv.
When I came here, I also bought into the idea of SWA culture.It took me a bit to discover the talk of "family" and "cohearts" was almost entirely illusion. It took me a bit longer to figure out the deal with SWApA. Imo, we're largely on our own.
The one caveat I'll make to all of the above about absolutely disagreeing with concessions is that I might be willing to agree to a small concessions package for one calendar month at a time with an automatic snap-back at the expiration of each month and a repayment of any concessions with interest to each pilot along with a bonus payment for any work rule or other non-monetary concessions upon a return to profitability that is written in ironclad language (like a mortgage forbearance). It would require a pilot group-wide vote each and every month for the concessions to remain in effect. If it was a SWApA BOD vote, I'd be a hard no.