Originally Posted by
Dan64456
I apologize if this has been brought up before or may sound cliché... But I've been thinking.
If they would add 25 cents to the total cost of a ticket per passenger per hour of flight, and give it to the F/O, or even split it between the captain and the F/O, this would help bring the F/O above the poverty line. This would add up to like 700 extra dollars per month (On a 37 seater with seats filled) if it were just going to the F/O... No one would complain about the quarter either.
Why hasn't this been considered?
They could, but why would they? They have furloughed FO's and thousands of CFI's all eager to come (back) to work for the current pay scale.
The only possible solution is either a long-term pilot shortage (not going to happen due to industry cycles) or a national pilot guild/union.
The national union (or coalition of unions) would have to have set payscale requirements for all aircraft types, as well as set payscales for general aviation, corporate, CFI, etc. Entry level pilots would not pay dues until they got a turbine job, or somesuch.
You could join the union as an apprentice the day you got your CPL, and there would be an incentive to work only at jobs which met the union pay standard. The incentive to participate at the entry level would be that airlines would preferentially hire union members...journeymen from other airlines, then apprentices off the street.
If you were sure that you never wanted to work at an airline, you could blow off the union, and do GA on your own. It would be kind of like the two kinds of plumbers...Union Plumbers and Turd Chasers.
You could assemble a coalition of unions pretty easily, and probably agree on a minimum pay scale which would become applicable for each pilot group at their next contract. The hard part would be that each local union would have to negotiate control over the hiring process, at least to the extent that non-union pilots would only be hired as a last resort. Many companies would resist this provision to the death. Actually it would be GOOD for the airlines...higher payscales would attract higher quality pilots, and they would have a better selection of applicants to choose from.
But now is the time to do it, with so many major contracts due.