Originally Posted by
jaybe90
It's interesting that no one has mentioned a national seniority list for all 121 pilots as a possible solution. If congress is bent on writing major legislation, why not put everyone on a list. The benefits would be huge, and it would significantly stabilize the industry. Pilots could shop airlines for the one with the best business model. You would no longer be tied to one carrier and have to go back to the bottom if your latest management team turned out to be bozos and ran the company into bankruptcy! Pay would already be set through negotiations based on number of seats and which seat you are sitting in. If one airline goes bankrupt, those displaced pilots would automatically get picked up in seniority order at other remaining carriers as soon as there are openings. Start-up airlines would have to pull from a pool of qualified listed pilots and pay them the going rate, not some substandard, joke benefits rate that drags down the other carriers. If a new carrier wants to succeed, they would have to have a better product, not just cheap first and second year new hire employees. Airline managements would actually have to MANAGE THE PRODUCT instead of simply lowering costs on the backs of their employees all the time. They would compete for customers based on service, not on costs. My understanding is that this almost happened back in the deregulation era and was part of the original legislation, but was removed in committee by anti-labor forces.
Found that highlighted portion of your post interesting. Does your theory take into account ramp personnel, gate agents, flight attendants, and so forth? I know this maybe difficult for pilots to understand, but a pilot is not the only part of what makes an airline profitable.
Granted, pilots are prone to a "certain" amount job insecurity in this profession, slightly more so than others, but I feel that is part of the marketplace in terms job applicants. There are a myriad of reasons on why the concept of a nationalized seniority is unfair, but I'll give you one flat out, maybe some pilots are stronger applicants than others. What I mean by that is, in terms of hiring, why should every pilot be guaranteed a job if the company they work for goes bankrupt. In an ideal world it would be really nice if every pilot always had a job, but if you guarantee that the most senor pilots get a job, that will always come at the expense of another pilot. If UAX goes out of business, would it be fair for the bottom 2,000 pilots at AA to be furloughed?
When we apply for a position with a company, it is an lifelong investment, one we can rarely see to the end with. I hate to say it, but ultimately I think it is a matter of picking your poison.