Originally Posted by
BeatNavy
A rising tide lifts all boats. And the converse is true. When someone else comes in and brings down industry 190/195/223 rates, it affects everyone else in negotiations. Just like when Eagle held strong and didn’t accept a concessionary contract, then PSA accepted that same crap contract, everyone got ****ed at PSA. That, and everyone else has to compete against your business that pays substandard wages and therefore has an unfair edge. It’s just another one of those “race to the bottom” things, with “we are just a struggling start up” as the excuse. Same historical playbook. Just writing a new chapter for what should be the second volume of Flying the Line. Don’t fault people for going there. It’s better than a regional. But big picture, kind of screws the industry.
Latest great example of pattern bargaining is the Atlas arbitration. The company used Mesa as a "comparable" because they now have 737 flying, and obviously their contract is total trash.
Accepting sub-standard contracts hinders the whole industry, not just your own airline. So when someone like Breeze comes up and flies mainline equipment at regional pay, yes, everyone can and should be slightly miffed by it. Next time jetBlue negotiates, they will use Breeze as their comparator.