You’re not wrong

line checks from 2022 vintage CKA don’t count! Spread the word

 

It's true.

It's especially galling with the line pilots are not picking up premium trips, turning off DOTC and generally going the extra mile themselves.

 

This times a billion. "Yea early 2022. I figured the same money for significantly more days worked, no premium, and living in Dallas every other month working the E session all while severely hampering our union's effort to extricate us from a bankruptcy contract sounded too awesome to pass up. Have you seen the cool wings?"

 

Have you guys ever considered the inability to clearly communicate directives to the pilot group is a failure of the pilot unions to exercise or gain political leverage to change legislation? Like, maybe pilots would be less likely to break ranks if they were more clearly defined sometimes, and told explicitly? Maybe in this case your guys were very clear, even for the "do my job, go home, and go fish" types that aren't on Facebook or whatever else you guys use. If not, I think the importance of clear direct communication in the flight deck should be considered.

 

Normally I’d agree but if there’s one issue APA has been very explicit about, it’s this. They sent like two emails a week. Everyone I’ve flown with has talked about it too. The only guy who said anything in defense of becoming a CKA now said that it could play out well for those guys if improvements are made and they got in while it’s not competitive - explicitly saying you’re stepping on everyone else’s back for your own potential benefit.

This is on those captains and no one else

 

I see. Well one hopes those guys are very few and far between. Of course there are always a few.

 

I don't have all the history, but keep in mind violations of the status quo is something that labor unions can be sued for under the RLA. So if there's a union out there suggesting that the group should change its behavior as a way to impact the company to achieve leverage in negotiations, understand that's illegal and the union could be sued, and if my memory serves APA has had to pay some fines related to similar lawsuits in the past.

If there's anything that drives cautious communication from APA, it's this, and my understanding is that if a group of pilots attempts a job action APA is still liable.

Again, still an outsider looking in, but it still looks like the overall environment is still in favor of the pilot group.

 

Yea, that's what I'm talking about. In the past, when unions were actually strong, and used to do more than add a couple percent to 401k contributions, they created legislation like a 40 hour work week. People just point to the RLA like it is a force of gravity instead of a rule put in place to heel labor. When you have real power you make rules, and pilots (especially at the top) seem way too comfortable to ever actually make lasting or visionary change the way corporations do when they literally write legislation that is put into bills. The lack of political power will always show itself in a weaker negotiating position.

 

Eh, I'm not going to suggest that pilot labor unions have always been right or have had the vision to not go down certain paths that have later proven detrimental to its membership (case in point: the entire FFD segment), but I think placing most of our hope of improvements in our lobbying power in DC is short sighted at best, primarily because management is always going to have a better funded set of lobbyists. Sure, perhaps reforming pieces of the RLA would be beneficial to 121 pilots as a whole, but you also have to consider what management is going to try and put into those bills.

For example: one of the features of the RLA is that all employees of a particular craft (read: pilots) have to be on the same seniority list and CBA system wide. What do you think would happen if a bill amending the RLA weakened any of those provisions? You think the hired guns at F&H wouldn't LOVE to work in that world where separate domiciles meant separate CBAs and system seniority lists? You the 'whipsaw' is bad now, any changes to those permissions would be open season. In many respects, better the devil we know than the devil that some management lobbyist comes up with.

The reality of the last 5-7 years (particularly at the regional level) is that broader macro-economic conditions (pilot demand and high barriers to entry to the profession) have done more for compensation (again, mostly at the regionals) than the prior 20 years of pilot union lobbying and negotiation. Certainly, things like the ATP rule and 117 have helped, but I think a lot of what we're seeing is that for a time prospective pilots saw the high cost of training, and measured it against $24.02 first year pay (my first pay rate at my current employer) and said no thank you. At the Legacy level, even at AA we can point to mid-contract raises outside of Section 6.

If I were King over at ALPA PAC (and whatever APA's equivalent is), my #1 goal would be making every international passenger airline that operates to/from US soil comply with 117, then ensuring that foreign airlines don't have the opportunity to operate 5th, 8th, or 9th freedom flights that originate or terminate in the US. It's things like that that'll be FAR more productive than imaging that amending the RLA has no downsides.

 

The power of labor isn't lobbyists and expensive dinners. That's for cigar chompers. The power of labor is labor. The ability to collectively bring things to a halt. Unfortunately pilots love obedience and would probably prefer gimp suits as uniforms. If pilots reached out to truckers and others that make infrastructure function I think you would find it a lot more effective than lobbyists making a few "campaign contributions." The problem in this country is no one really thinks things can get better, they are afraid of losing before they even try, and so they don't. They won't risk anything and only get what fortune gives them. Contrary to popular belief, you can in fact lose if you don't play. Just because current conditions happen to be favorable doesn't mean they will be later. People determine economic conditions when they act together. If a union of people doesn't act a corporation of people will and does and is.

Foreign carrier work rules are somewhere below the wages of burger flippers when it comes to what we are paid.