There are others factors to consider beyond wages. While many of the issues concerning unions in the media deal with pay issues, a union contract at Penair would focus on other issues. While most guys would prefer to make more money, they realize that they do pretty well considering the size of Penair and the equipment we fly. I would propose a union contract at Penair that would only make minor changes to the pay structure. (make it impossible to lower the pay scale and have the pay scale reset for inflation every five years) I would prefer to deal with the other issues that surround us at Penair.

The major issues confronting Penair pilots concern quality of life, quality of employment, and job security. These are pretty easy issues to handle with a union and a contract.

A quality of life clause would set forth a standard for traffic and management to follow when contacting and scheduling pilots.

A quality of employment clause would set forth a standard for management to follow when dealing with weather delays, broken airplanes, cold airplanes, and other issues that can drastically affect how happy you are on a given day. The lack of coherent training would also be dealt with here.

A job security clause is pretty plain and simple: seniority based upgrades, downgrades, furloughs, and other job events that are usually handled via seniority at other airlines. We would also set forth a standard for determining the seniority of incoming new hires (if anyone decides to work here ever again) so that people aren't still b**ching about their seniority number five years down the road.

Having a small portion of my paycheck go to union dues is a small price to pay to assure my quality of life, quality of employment, and secure my position.