Originally Posted by
HIREME
You know what...it does suck that pilots get jerked around with their former jobs being shipped off to other companies. Some say it's just business, but it's not. In business, if your job goes to a competitor, you at least have a shot at being hired somewhere else in a similar capacity. In aviation, you start over at the bottom regardless of experience. I think it's our fault for not evolving with the changing times. We should have some system in place to make sure we are unified and that there are negligable benefits for airlines swapping planes/routes to other companies. A minimum pay/national sen. list/ something to unify all pilots across companies moreso than alpa does now. It should include all Airline pilots...maybe all ATP's after recieveing their liscense, they are inducted...Someone with more qual's and passion for it than I can figure this out. Until we are all unifed, we will be split like this. It does suck to be the other company losing flying and hearing about another benefiting from your jobs lost
Amen to that. We DO need some sort of national seniority list. I appreciate ALPA for all that they do, but times have changed. With a national seniority list, companies could not hold pilots hostage to work at a crappy company. Airlines would be forced to maintain a status quo or risk losing pilots to other companies. For example, airline A wants to enforce a 20% paycut. With a national seniority list, all pilots from airline A would have the ability to leave for better airlines and still maintain their seniority at the other airlines. This would force airline A into maintaining a certain QOL, or risk losing their pilots.
A national seniority list would also unify the pilot groups. Lets say Pinnacle is about to go on strike. If they strike, every single plane operated by pilots on this national seniority list is grounded. Every single damn one of them. Imagine working for a union with that kind of power. The days of 5,6,7 year contract negotiations would be over. No longer would you have to be tied to one airline for the rest of your life. Too bad this is just a pipe dream. The infighting between carriers will always exist unless someone does something to change it.