Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
I don't like to see anyone on the street either. But reality is that they should have never had those jobs in the first place. Those are Delta pilot jobs they have taken. If we take those jobs back and they end up on the street, then they have every opportunity to apply to Delta and, if chosen, go through the interview process to be evaluated for potential hiring at Delta Air Lines. They're already had a significant boost to their careers by virtue of the fact that they've had the opportunity to build tons of quality multi-engine jet time. It shouldn't be difficult for the vast majority of them to get hired here at Delta, if this is where they would like to work.
DAL88, saying someone should have not taken a job that we freely let go of is overly simplistic and easy to state from our position. It is like Carl telling guys they should have gone and done 135 when all of their buddies were going the regionals and a few years later sitting in a mainline jet. Pilots will go where there are jobs. Part of the fault lies with us, and the other part comes from the overall ignorance of young pilots that frankly have no idea about the pitfalls of the industry. ALPA's education committee is very slowly educating pilots on this industry a career. It is a first, and something I would have appreciated many years ago, but alas, regionals were prop operators back then too.
Yes, those jobs exerted downward pressure on our wages, but we are the ones that allowed them to exist at those companies to begin with.
This notion of building quality time is just plain funny. If you think that Glass EFIS Category D jet PIC time is just good sound time building, then we will just disagree. Heck coming here I had to do a scan that I had not done in six plus years. This argument might have held water before the overall quality of the training at the regionals changed about a decade ago. These airlines morphed from little prop airlines to National airlines that flew high performance jets. The training is excellent at almost all regionals. I can attest to that, as I used to administer it. That training and expecations have allowed RJ drivers to come to this airline and thrive on the type of training we do. Most are self starters.
The insane requirement for jet time as being competitive for a major job only came about because it was there. If these RJ's had not arrived, DAL would be hiring pilots with turbo prop time alone. It is just the way the market changed.
In the end, sitting in our corners does nothing to change the industry. Pilots like Joe Merchant will spout off about the realities of why he stayed at ASA (BTW he is not junior and is very senior there) What we need to do is think outside of the traditional lines of thinking, talk about pros and cons (respectfully) with each other, and in the end find a way to stop outsourcing, promote in-sourcing by any means possible, and unify as a profession. Until that even occurs, it is business usual, and we can expect the same results. I look forward to your ideas, because frankly, our best thinking go us to where we are today, with small lift operators performing way to much of a mainlines flying.
Should value to our Association to the next generation is important, not just for us, but for the profession as a whole. Right now no one sees value in being unified on a National level. There is a lot of weight to that statement, and that is why, industry wide, we need to reinvent the wheel so to speak, and do it unified not divided in to separate associations.