[quote=duvie;751190]
I would tend to disagree, every person has the right to work where they want and projecting your values on other pilots won't accomplish your goal of industry-wide unity.
Projecting my values may not achieve solidarity, but it does kill time on the internet. I wish pilots were more unified, human nature not withstanding. I also like to bang back against the concept of good and bad regionals. I think we need to understand what has been lost in this profession and try to regain some of it instead of jabbing at each other over who's more bit-chen because they get 1-2 more days off a month and $2-3 more a flight hour. Instead of wasting energy trying to feel superior to pilots at "bad regionals" we should invest energy in ways to work together.
Strong unions rarely exist in such cut-throat industries and when they do, eventually they can put incredibly financial strain on their company by preventing them from providing a competitively priced product (GM, Ford, etc).
Are unions to blame when companies fail? The current state of our auto industry is a result of poor planning and decision-making on the part of the heads of these businesses. I'm sure someone smart enough to run a huge company like GM is smart enough to negotiate with a union.
Longshoreman and the like derive their power from the fact that if they don't work, nobody else can fill in for them....if Continental struck tomorrow, the industry as a whole would continue to function.
We would be treated a lot differently if the NLRA did not require so much time and place so many barriers before a strike. In your example, if COA struck tomorrow, the industry might be okay, but COA would sure be motivated to bargain in good faith and reach a mutually satisfactory deal with its pilots.
The NLRA should be changed so that union pilots can more effectively bargain. Pilots need to stop competing against each other to see who can work the most and earn the least. The balance of power needs to shift back toward unions enough that companies are forced to reasonably price goods and services so that living wages and benefits are paid.
The Dash Whisperer