Originally Posted by
oldmako
A much likelier scenario would be management merely setting the table for furloughs. Something will occur, a significant geopolitical event, economic upheaval, a merger, take your pic. Something will impact earnings and future projections and bookings. A percentage of the pilots will micturate themselves and bleat incessantly on the forums. They will offer up idiotic solutions to solve someone else's problem. The sky will be falling and by golly, "we gotta save our jobs and the airline!"
This is basically what happened in 2020. Yes, the situation was dire, but there is no way the company was going to get 4,000 deep in furloughs. Yet they were threatening that & hinting at much, much deeper cuts. Why? To get us so scared that we’d
volunteer to take pay cuts.
Ultimately, the outcome was about as good as we could hope for, but sometimes the risk of winning a bad bet is that you walk away learning the wrong lesson. I don’t doubt most LOA yes voters had the noblest of intentions but my fear is that many see that as the new standard for how we respond to economic downturns.