Originally Posted by
Paid2fly
Here are some facts...Every Captain at this airline was once an f.o.! Some of us actually had to start in the right seat of turboprops flying up to 13 legs a day with no autopilot, and a repeater on our side for ILS's flown down to minimums. Not once as an f.o. did I ever think or say that the Captain I flew with deserved less, so that I could make more.
I have been saying that all of us deserve a better offer without trying to cut out 1/2 of the pilot group to benefit myself... Perhaps you should consider that dividing the pilot group(as in give it all to the f.o.'s and none to Captains) will only produce infighting that will not be productive in getting all of us a better overall increase!!!
I can appreciate the fact that current Captains have it tougher back in the day in the right seat. But am I the only one that sees that the current pay structure as obscenely unfair. It sounds like you're trying to make the argument that since I had it rough, you just need to take it up the arse like I did even though we all know you deserve more.
Let's be honest here, RJ CAs making 80-100K/yr is fair compensation. 30-40K/yr for FOs is not. I just don't see the wrong in bringing one side up a bit. People here can say what they wish and call me what they wish. But I sincerely believe that if I was in the left seat, I'm willing to go as far as taking a $7-8/hr paycut and shift it to the right seat if that ever comes up for vote. At least this way I can say we're both underpaid and let's fight the good fight together.
I guess though if we have fair pay, regionals wouldn't exist. I don't see why major/legacy pilots would have a problem making 80-100K/yr in the left seat of a 50/70 seater. I'm willing to bet they were unwilling to accept a 30-40K right seater.
I guess we're stuck, fair pay at regionals = no need for regionals. So someone has to be underpaid. The way it is now is that instead of both seats being under paid, it's one seat fairly paid and the other insanely underpaid. I guess one could argue that FOs have been subsidizing the fair compensation on the other side.
Just some of my thoughts, I don't really have a good solution, just wasting time on an overnight. Cheers