Originally Posted by
Mesabah
Why doesn't the union raise first year FO pay to a livable wage? This is a union negotiated rate, management does not set pay rates, the unions do. Pay is not a result of supply and demand in this industry, it is negotiated by the respective pilot groups. $20K a year is because pilots at your company believe that is all you are worth, not management.
The union is a business just like the airline, it will seek to raise the overall pay of its members to increase its own revenue. It does not care if they are making $20K as long as someone is making $200K. This is the problem with unions, it does not allow new hires to negotiate their own pay. If a pilot wants to work in this industry he has to accept the low pay, under the guise of paying ones dues. The problem with this is that management will focus all its attention on making pilots work for the low salaries the unions have created. Pilots should be able to negotiate their own rates. Why can't ALPA be a non-union professional society, it would make way more money that way....
In answer to your question, the answer lies in the much needed paradigm shift that has to occur in ALPA NATL and throughout the industry.
The pay your dues upfront mentallity has to change given a time when A plans are all but extinct, and even given the storied history of the industry, the growing fact most airlines could go bye bye if things don't improve.
So, you have pay precedence based on years of past protcol. Despie the fact things have changed, if you are at the top of the seniority ladder are you going to step up and voluntarily take another loss in a lesser pay raise to improve new hire pay? Especially if you've endured 6 years of pay on average 60% less than you were making (UAL) after seat bumps, etc., and after running thru an ill designed ESOP where you took a 25% paycut buying what became worthless stock for 6 years......
I do not ascribe to that position personally, just wanted to play devils advocate.
In todays age, it will take leadership from the senior folks at airlines and.ALPA NATL to realize that to truly preserve the profession you will have to have a paradigm shift in this day to attract both the right folks into the cockpit and realize it is now career earnings versus FAE that will bear the fruit in any retirement.
As one who volunteered to leave UAL, I will tell you it won't happen until the senior crop of folks retire and those folks that lived thru worse times on furlough after 911 and todays furloughs gain power.
Then again, they could also say "stop your crying, I was furloughed twice from UAL, shut up and color."
Until there is a "vision" on how to mold the compensation issue for today from ALPA, there will be no change. Every time they endorse a substandard contract, they put another nail in the coffin of the profession.
Off the soap box.
Lee