Originally Posted by duvie

As a former Skypest guy, I never quite understood this. In most union trades, the point of a “union wage” was to prevent unskilled Joe-Shmoes from watering down the going rate for a service (among other things).

so when you have an airline like Skywest with better work rules and pay than most union carriers, it sounds more like ALPA has done a good job convincing people that nobody should exist outside their purview. That is to say, if Skywest operated like a Colgan and was able to get flying because the pilots viewed it is a stepping stone and accepted cut rate pay for quick upgrades, I would say that is a complete abrogation of a union trade and ALPA should address that. Ultimately, ALPA and pilot groups should be more concerned with the atrocious work rules and pay that exist within their own union sanctioned pilot groups before attacking a pilot group that has achieved results without a union.

to be VERY clear, I’m very glad to be working for a union shop and always take the time to express that to nonunion pilots. But I really do not think SkyWest is the problem with this model… The fact that there is no published minimum wage and that union carriers undercut each other with terrible contracts seems like a much bigger issue to focus on. So, Hypothetically, if you were furloughed and given a choice between working for Mesa or SkyWest… I think almost everyone knows what the answer would be. If that isn’t indicative of some thing, I don’t know what is