Originally Posted by
Irishblackbird
Fine, they can backfill all the s@!ty regional jobs with the lousy pay and crap work rules.... or better yet maybe it would kill off the regional model altogether without pilots. ALPA needs to take a stand against this and put pressure on government not allow our jobs to be outsourced. There are plenty of US citizens that are qualified pilots still not getting hired by the legacy's. When airlines can start a training academy and demand that over 50 percent of jobs will go to minorities tells me that we have enough pilots here in the US.Flooding the market with foreigners only delays airlines from having to negotiate pay and good contracts. Also, what will happen when there is a recession and pilots are furloughed, will foreign pilots still have a job, while a junior US pilot sits unemployed?
If upgrades slow due to stagnation, fine. That also means profits and expansion will slow as well. How long do you think shareholders will tolerate that? Right now JetBlue and Spirit are reducing schedules because pilots have choices and are going to legacy's in favor of better pay and career progression as well as the yet to be determined merger. Choices are good, and something we haven't seen in this industry in decades. Let's not kill it in favor of foreign pilots taking our jobs for a short term fix of poor management.
ALPA needs to take a stand? Do you think they’ve been silent on this issue? They have been hammering that message at the government level. Skywest was the first carrier to start using the Special Visas for skilled labor to get pilots many years ago and ALPA oppose it from day 1. If you aren’t aware ALPA has been demanding an end to this then you haven’t been paying attention.
Also, what airline has started a flight academy and demanded that “over 50% of jobs will go to minorities” as you claim? I’ll wait because you won’t find it. Now if you are referring to a particular major carrier which started a flight academy to address pilot supply and provide access and opportunities then you have a complete misunderstanding or “spin” of what was said. This carrier says they need to hire 10,000 pilots over the next decade. Half (that’s 5,000) will come through traditional pathways. The other half would come from its own flight academy…that’s another 5,000. Of these 5,000 academy students, HALF would be women, minorities and traditionally under-represented populations who don’t have the means to access training. Quick math. I think that’s 2,500 or 25%…not “over 50%” as you claim. I’m a well-off white male from an upper middle class family who had all the opportunities possible. A few of my high school friends were not so lucky when they were some of the smartest people I knew. Opportunity and access matter. Heaven forbid a woman or African American or (clutching my pearls) an Asian lesbian gets the chance to sit next to me in the flight deck and do this awesome job, seeing the world from the best office view there is. EVERYONE with the skills to do this job should get the opportunity to do so without monetary or discriminatory barriers.