Lab Rat,

Agreed. No matter how "important" we are, or how many passengers we carry, or how much responsibility we have, we are only going to get paid what we negotiate.

And to do that we need tools. The RLA and union system hinder us from using our best tool.... instant strike. Which is what everyone else (other industries) does when they say, "hey, either pay/treat/love me better or I am out of here."

The RLA puts up road blocks (cooling off periods, etc) to hinder that so that "the greater good" is not hindered. And the Union does it because it says, "sure you can leave your job, but if you try and come over here with your 747,767, MD80, DC-9, DC-10, 737 types and 18,000 hours you will start on the bottom at first year pay and benefits."

So the senior guys are beholden to thier carrier they have been with for 20 years and managment knows it. They know they will never leave because they can't get a better job in the industry anywhere else.

Therefore we lose our power to negotiate and rely on the "rising tide raises all ships/ solidarity" ploy. Which never works, because in the end each pilot will do what he has to do for his own family. And that is human nature and no matter how much propaganda Unions sell, that will never change.

Someone else on this board said it better than me, but Unions speak to mankinds best nature, but not to reality.