Originally Posted by
ualdriver
Got it. The picture is starting to form. The reason why VA pilots don't stand up for themselves and undercut is because of ALPA. ALPA gave away scope, so VA pilots have to accept substandard wages. It has NOTHING to due with your pilot group. How is it that airlines that fly similar sized aircraft like Delta, Southwest, Alaska, etc., are able to pay the wages they do DESPITE all the miserable failings of ALPA that apparently has created a huge supply of pilots, yet VA can't?
The problem with you is that you are ****ed off at ALPA for whatever reason, and therefore don't feel the need to stand up for yourself. You're going to accept crappy wages as a big FU to ALPA and you don't want any ALPA guy to tell you that what you are doing is a drag on the industry. We're taking steps right now to try to fix scope and the downward spiral in pay over the past decade and guys like you.....well.....you'll do your best to rationalize why you're doing the opposite.
I'm done. I'm going to type out ramblings about how you guys need to stand up for yourselves and get a total compensation package that you guys deserve, and you're going to tell me it's all ALPA's fault and bring in TWA or US Air or God knows what else to rationalize your pilot group's actions.
Once again, you simplify by saying it is because we are po'd at ALPA. Sorry your brain capacity is at maximum. No, it has to do with the fact that wages have been driven down for the past 15 years due to outsourcing to RJs, creating a glut of pilots who have lived at or near the poverty level who are looking for a larger paycheck. Paychecks that are not available at mainline legacy carriers because the jobs were given away.
How are your trying to "fix scope"? What in the history of de-regulation makes you think that once you have given something away you are going to get it back? Name one significant thing ALPA, or any other union, has done since de-regulation to win things back for the pilot profession. This has nothing to do with being po'd at ALPA - I was a dues paying member of both ALPA and teamsters, and a member of an ALPA organizing committee at another airline. I am not angry with ALPA. I am angry with folks at ALPA blaming others for the negative effects of their own failures - the reason pilots are living on food stamps while flying 90 seat jets is because of your actions. You are asking myself, and every other regional pilot out there to sacrifice for your mistakes by passing up larger paychecks or remaining unemployed or collecting foodstamps, in the extremely slim hope you may do something no union has been able to do since de-regulation.
Sadly, due to your mistakes of the past, RJs are out there in huge numbers. The size of those RJs are getting bigger, claiming an ever bigger chunk of the entry level mainline legacy jobs. The cockpits of those airplanes are filled with guys who have never come close to seeing six figures, and the FOs have rarely seen half of six figures. Thousands of former mainline pilots are on the street collecting unemployment due to the mistakes of your past. You seem to think because it was endorsed by your union, those are good things.
I feel truly sorry for you.