Originally Posted by
Elevation
I think Zero is trying to say that these pilots, once hired, are our equals. Equals in pay, protection, etc. So from that standpoint they don't undermine us. That much I agree with. The pilots are not undermining us.
Holding recruiting events in Australia when there are pilots to be found in the US is an abuse of E3 visas. When times become hard again, there will be a lot of Aussies holding seniority here while Americans are on the street. Even if you say that lower labor costs are good for American shareholders, you have to ignore a number of other things.
But let's all back up another step. We fly Qantas routes out of HNL. There are Aussies who could be flying there without jobs, in part, because of us. So fair is fair. We can't bemoan Aussies here when we're flying routes that would otherwise have Australian crews on them.
Our recent, recruiting road shows are a departure from normal. We had plenty of Aussies find us and come to work here before these. This is new, and it's a maneuver to bridge a short-term staffing shortage.
The problem isn't the Australians; it's our recent maneuvers in Australia.
I may be the protagonist of this topic but contracting with QF is not the same as hiring foreign pilots. We fly for companies all over the world, but we are an American company. We operate a type they don’t operate, and perform a function they can not perform.
Foreign pilots don’t perform any functions that domestic pilots can’t. An apples-to-apples would be if we operated QF metal on QF routes with US pilots.
Again I’d like to affirm that the pilots are not the problem, the practice is the problem. The seniority list outrage would be out of control if we furloughed and kept foreign pilots at work. But somehow it’s ok now?