Originally Posted by
Turbosina
Yup. Of course if you take the 'degrade the profession' argument too far, like some guys on the mainline threads, you could say "flying for regional wages degrades the profession," which then becomes "flying for newhire mainline pay degrades the profession," until you wind up at the logical (but nonsensical) conclusion, which is that "flying for less than topped-out WB CA pay degrades the profession."
I don't actually have a point
Mainline cannot make the argument that flying for regionals degrades anything, since they allowed it to happen, albeit some of that was in Ch.11 and there has at least been some recent contractual pushback from unions.
First-year pay is negotiated by the union, so that doesn't count. In fact in the last few years the company (regionals and majors) typically wanted a HIGHER first-year pay to attract recruits, but the unions (correctly) negotiated that in the context of pay across the board.
WB's pay more because they can, compared to say a B1900 CA a DL WB CA might make more in a year than the B1900 is actually worth...
Alter-ego operations obviously degrade the profession, since they are created for the express purpose of breaking a union shop (ie gojets vs. TSA). I would say that and paying for actual SIC seat time on a revenue flight are clear red lines (not technically scabs, but I'm sure alter-ego pilots fantasize about crossing a picket line someday).