Originally Posted by
tomgoodman
Disconnecting pay from seniority is a pretty radical idea, but maybe we need to consider it. There would certainly be some objections. First, companies would have to be forced to hire the high-wage veterans instead of low-wage rookies. No incumbents would be displaced, but it would "lock in" a pay inversion (reverse B-scale). There would be an internal battle over the next contract proposal, with senior, lower-paid pilots wanting parity, and junior, better-paid pilots saying "you still have less years of experience than I do." The company might say "forget it -- nobody gets a pay raise, because we had to spend it all on the new-hires."
Although the pay-for-experience idea has some definite merits for the profession as a whole, I doubt that any individual company or pilot group will voluntarily take in "refugees" except at the bottom of the seniority and pay scales. (Unless, of course, the refugees bring some nice airplanes with them).
The bottom line is they likely hood that i will see 30 year captain pay comes down to luck if pilots were compensated on what they are bringing to the company vs how long they have been with a company. Most pilots that fly for a career will stay in the profession long enough to gain the experience to be compensated fairly for there skills. this is just a idea.
Honestly i am not willing to bet that any of the companies that are here today will be here in 30 years. And i am tired of companies using labor as a bargaining chip. As far as forcing companies to hire more experienced pilots i don't think that is a good idea. Companies that want to hire low time pilots should be able to do so. We can always let the media and the insurance companies know which companies choose this option. I think if the public had a way to compare airlines other than just the lowest ticket price they may choose differently. If the insurance companies could compare pilot experience at airline A vs airline B their rates will probably be different. But sooner that later most pilots will be experienced and wages will go up. It is not a perfect solution but at least you would have control over you future more experience = more pay. Airline's should consider pilot wages as a normal cost of doing business (airplanes do not fly themselves and pilot cannot learn everything in a sim). The fear that old pilots will be replaced by young inexperienced pilots is a perfect law suit waiting to happen. Companies don't get ride of union pilots for no reason. New airline don't start up with flight instructors fresh out of sim training.
Unions are good at safety related things let them do what they are good at.
we need a new way to determine a pilots worth other than years of service at a specific airline. The one airline for life thing worked great when they made money and didn't file Bankruptcy all the time.
What will happen when their is a world airline?
They want a world currency and a globe economy.