Originally Posted by
NotMrNiceGuy
I think this is a matter of perspective. Concerning your first point about management and union cooperation, these solutions weren’t without contention.
Not specific to UAL...all our peers managed to to work with management to develop agreements surrounding all aspects of covid, from contact notifications, sick pay, and vaccinations. Southwest, which has some of the poorest labor relations in the industry currently, refused to work with SWAPA.
As far as no pilots being furloughed, if I’m not mistaken, didn’t SWA and DAL also avoid furloughs? I may have that wrong, but I thought that they just sent out letters. I don’t remember exactly how UAL avoided furloughs, but I initially remember talks about the senior pilots taking a pay cut to support the junior pilots. These are the same senior pilots that endured 9/11 and great recession furloughs. I never had to endure a furlough, but I felt that was disrespectful to those senior guys. Again, maybe DAL and SWA did something similar, but I don’t recall.
United - This is a very high level summary, but the pilot group was spilt into thirds where the top group was mostly unaffected, the mid group would take a reduction in guarantee, and the bottom group would receive reduced pay. It was mostly a wash for the mid group, since most were headed towards a downgrade without an agreement. The bottom group would have been furloughed anyways. Then thanks to PSP, the junior group was made whole. Importantly, nobody was put on leave or retrained, so the company remained flexible and is able to support their original schedule. Both sides knew it would take the company years to retrain pilots if they furloughed, so a mostly win-win agreement was made.
Southwest - Management went to the union and said "we want to 10% pay cut from the pilots or else". And the union said "or else what, show us your data.". And labor relations said, "nope, just give us 10%". So the company sends out WARN letters right before Christmas with dates way in the future. By the time those dates came, we were basically back to 90% of the 2019 schedule. By summer our performance went down the drain as we'd let many pilots out with VSP and didn't have the resources to bring back all the exTO pilots.
As far as pilot hiring, we’ll see what SWA has in store. But pilots are a strange animal to me. Company performance was a major driver me in my job search. But most pilots don’t have that at the top. There’s currently a DAL vs. UAL thread somewhere. In my mind, DAL has made nearly three times the profit (not revenue) of UAL over the last decade. Plus, massive profit sharing. Steady growth. DAL hands down. You know who 80% of the pilots said they favored? UAL. Because WBs and seniority. Seniority at either carrier is not that different; something less than 10%. I don’t think company performance was even mentioned. All this to say, the lure of WB is a lure that SWA does not have so they are at a disadvantage which will be interesting to watch play out the next few years.
Since I'm not a stockholder in the company I work out and never plan to be (except for a few days that it takes to receive and sell the discounted stock), I'm not overly concerned with performance. I believe that Southwest, United, and Delta would be around for the years I have left. What does concern me is the degradation of our onboard product, from our pathetic internet to our decline in hospitality. Consumers hold Southwest in high regard, but we are perilously close to losing that goodwill as the issues continue to mount. Been on Delta recently? If you have, it might make you worry also.
There are some really good things here. But there are some areas we do badly at, and we should recognize these failings and try to do better.