Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
There are two camps that fall into SWA exceptionalism.
A. Guys that couldn't get on with a real airline in the 90s and got hired by a growing but still small Texas 737 airline. They basically fell head first into the luckiest bit of timing in aviation history as the industry crashed around them while SWA grew by leaps and bounds. They attribute this to their warrior spirit and fun luvving attitude and it certainly has nothing to do with luck or timing. They never sat reserve, upgraded in 3-5 years, and think SWAPA is being too militant right now.
B. Guys who got hired in the lost decade. They are just glad to be here since they were almost selling handies in a mens room around the corner from their house. Herb probably went to their new hire lunch and they definitely want to keep "the culture" alive.
As our ranks grow, their ranks shrink. I got pretty freaked out when TA1 almost passed. I actually started getting my resume' in order. That won't happen again at this company. Karl and friends are at the mercy of market forces. There has never been a time in all of history that pilots have had so much on their side in negotiations. You cannot fight economics. You just can't.
Your A and B points are probably a pretty good analysis IMO.
OTOH, I don’t have as much faith as you do that the settling-for-less won’t happen again. I hope you’re right and I’m wrong but I’m pretty confident our pilot group will manage to seize defeat from the jaws of victory - we will fail to hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch on 2nd-and-goal from the New England one-yard line with 20 seconds remaining to win the Super Bowl. No, instead we will do some inexplicably dumb sh** like pass the ball for an interception and defeat.
Seahawks fans all thought Belichick and Brady were at the mercy of the best running back in the league. They all thought the confetti machine was seconds away from spraying out clouds of blue and green. But Pete Carroll had other ideas.
Don’t underestimate the blinding shortsightedness of this pilot group when going up against the likes of FordHarrison and SWA’s labor relations department. Charlie Brown never did manage to catch onto Lucy’s shenanigans.