Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
I believe the market could support pilots having the same standard of living in general that we have typically had throughout the years. The difference between that and what we have now is just not that big of a cost in the grand scheme of things. It's just a matter of making it a priority. How to arrange things so that priority can be met is something for management and their bean counters to figure out.
It's really easy to just dismiss someone's argument as "emotional." Fear is an emotion too. And it can be quite paralyzing.
How is the market even remotely equivalent to the markets of the 70s 80s or even 2K? The supply and demand curve is vastly different than it was then. There were no puppy mill pilot factories back then. There were no predatory subcontractors hiring marginally experienced pilots at lower wages. You didn't have a public and hence a government demanding ever decreasing airfares as a birth right.
The Grand Scheme of Things, in a business sense, is not yours to determine. Just because we "make it a priority" doesn't mean we will be successful. Just look to American. If we had the power to dictate to the bean counters and managers what our price will be and let them figure out how to make it work, you might not like how they did. The market is not static and Newton's Laws still apply. If we were successful in commanding above market rates, there would be an equal and opposite reaction. The cost of our contract would equalize to the costs of the competition's contracts somehow, most likely by eliminating bodies. If you raise the per unit cost of labor too far beyond the competition, employers will reduce the number of units to keep their total costs in line.
How much is enough? I have no idea. It will be based on the market conditions and trends at the time of negotiations. The past will have very little bearing on those conditions.