Originally Posted by
⌐ AV8OR WANNABE
Again - see above argument about scabs, etc. I don't see CAL/AA/Eagle pilots as me "competition," they are fellow pilots. Under an NSL they would be "my own."
I was raised in Europe, were you raised on Soviet Union?
Seriously, how can you say that those pilots are not your competition? Do you own your house/condo? Or does it belong to the people? See my point? Your position seem to be more idealistic than Chavez’ over what constitutes a socialistic economy… If you work for a company that has a competitor – the employees at your competitor ARE your competitors too…
From an outsiders perspective. It seems to me that wheresmyplane is speaking from a regional pilots perspective. In the regional world you can do your best as far as performance, but at contracts end the flying you do will be transfered to the lowest bidder who's pilots have a lesser labor contract. When performance numbers are similar the only differentiation is that one airlines pilot group is cheaper. AV8OR is speaking from a major perspective. Major pilots do the best they can to make the airline more money than the competing airline, but do not risk losing their flying to the competing airline based on their cheaper pilot group. Sure the company is going to argue that if you don't lower the pilot group costs they can't compete, but if you continue to do your job well and the company is making money there will be no concessions and certainly no loss of flying to the competitor due to your pilot contract.
Perhaps a better argument for wheresmyplane to make would be for a regional airlines union with one contract. This could possibly curb the problems faced by regional airlines by creating an even playing field instead of having us compete against each other primarily on pilot cost.