Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnBurke
ALPA never represented Omni, which makes what ALPA wants irrelevant.
There are many airlines not represented by ALPA; ALPA does not speak for those operations, either. The only possiblity for such an idiotic scheme to work would be if all carriers and all pilot bodies belonged to the same union, which will never happen. Further, the notion that a company A should be bound by a CBA that company B has with it's pilots and their union, is ridiculous. Such entitlement, by the pilots of Company B.
Pilots at a given company get what their collective bargaining agreement with their employer allows, period. Omni is not obligated by what Delta pays. American is not obligated by what United pays, ad infinitum. It's not a failure on the part of ALPA: it was never within the capability or reach of ALPA to create such a hairbrained, bull **** system, and it's pure arrogance to argue otherwise. An industry-wide seniority list is an idiotic notion, to say nothing of the impossiblity of integrating the career military pilot, foreign carrier pilots who work for US carriers, etc. The difficulty of merging seniority lists when two companies marry is a nightmare; to do so across the board with companies that are not merged is an utter impossiblity to negotiate, to implement and to carry forward. Merely establishing seniority, the fundamental start date, would be a no-go. Date of solo? Private? First pilot certificate? Completion of Undergraduate Pilot Training? First 121 carrier? What about 135? Military? Utility pilots? Twenty-year pilot bids new equipment? P8 pilot leaves the USN and goes 121, with years of 737 experience; where does (s)he fit in? ALPA never had the power to solve these problems, let alone create a universal seniority list, or incorporate all pilots. It was never going to happen, and it won't.
Further, there is a big difference between what one operator does with their aircraft, and what another operator does. No, we don't all "fly the same ILS approach." Operators such as Atlas, Omni, Kalitta, etc, have long operated into places that American, United, SWA, etc, do not go; such places bring with them increased hazards, and a valid argument is to be made to pay commensurate with such hazards.
When the issue of contracts are raised, given that the contract is between the company and the pilot body that works there (not another company and their workforce), the company must look closely at the resolve of the pilot body. Were the senior management to make a statement (today, for example) that they're losing experienced pilots and desire to stop the bleed "sooner than later," a workforce that's united in a 100% strike vote, and that continues to assert their position by attrition to other ccarriers with better schedule, pay, etc, then it behooves the senior company management to resolve those differences and bargain in good faith.
Omni is not bound, nor obligated by what Delta pays. However, Omni needs to accept loss to other carriers at a continuing high rate, or adapt to become competitive. That may mean considering what other carriers are paying, and negotating in good faith to be a place where attrition is low and satisfaction is high. With that in mind, it IS worth considering what other carriers pay and mete out in retirement (etc) as a competitive value. Omni needs to consider industry standards and the options its pilots have, when determining a collective bargaining agreement. Nobody is integrating a seniority list with Delta, but if an Omni pilot can be persuaded to remain at Omni, instead of moving to Delta (et al), then that's significant savings in recruitment and training to Omni.
It's all actually very doable.
Just like all three legacy carriers now have the exact same pay rates for their equipment ; no real big cost advantage or disadvantage for management to complain about.
National list. Easy. Start issuing the national number to all new hires. Continue doing things exactly as we do today until there are no legacy seniority list guys left that do not also have the national list number. At that point, go by the natonal list. Worried that not every union wil play nice? Don't worry. When 3/4 of the 121 industry is ALPA the few outliers will see the future and demand their union either join and get them on the list, or they'd dump their union and join ALPA like both Kallita and ATI..... and very likely soon AA will be ALPA too by the looks of things.
That all said, it won't happen. Not because it can't be done; because there is not enough interest in getting it done.
I agree with everything else you so elequently stated.
Today
