Originally Posted by
slowplay
Because the Express guys started complaining about "C" scale, wanting "mainline pay for mainline work", but with no system rebid. It was a really interesting exercise. Many of the early Express guys were returning furloughees from the '93 class and lobbied hard for the creation of the MCO operation (Sunshine). Once they got there the past and current reps (Martin, Renkel, et. al.) forgot their history and lobbied hard for huge payraises and work rule changes, but wanted special protections for the guys in category. They forgot those 737's were the future mainline Captain seats for a lot of guys still flying FO when they were moved to Orlando. They overpromised and underdelivered to the Express pilots. While C2K got them big payraises, almost immediately the drawdown of the category began.
There was an awful lot of whining when the category was finally closed completely in 2003.
Another example of be careful what you wish for...
Lest we forget history, indeed there WAS rebid of the category--and it went almost exactly as junior as it was. A few captains got displaced, and it remained the junior category of the airline. Much like Song, several attempts were made to keep a dedicated operation SE-NE. I would disagree that the reps "forgot" their history, but were trying to rid the airline of the "C" scale once it was put in place and the airline was hiring again.
Overpromising and underdelivering was indeed the case to a certain extent, but I can speak for one captain who happily went back to the right seat, of the ER, and got a $22/hr raise. I believe that the complaining was due to the fact that the retro pay was based on raises which were stepped down in order to provide less of a retro check for the Express pilots. No doubt part of the politics of the deal to keep the non-Express pilots from complaining--which most did anyway. Always plenty of complaining to go around. I wasn't one of them.
Just a slightly different perspective from someone who was there.