uavking

The "union fat cats" line is exactly the sort of discourse that union busters want you to use. It is straight out of their playbook. If you don't believe me, take a look at how public sector union busting campaigns have played out over the last few years (Wisconsin is a great example).

Are there inefficiencies in unions? Sure. Does this negate the overall good that union solidarity brings in terms of work rules, wages, etc.? Nope. Go back to when ALPA was started in the 30's and you'll see owners bent on pushing their pilots in unsafe ways for minimal pay. This is the constant tension between management and labor that is, at least, tempered by unionism.

LineUpAndPay

Your 1.5 shares mixed into your target date retirement fund really doesn't change the fact that you are labor and they want to squeeze you as much as possible. Your life is much more dramatically impacted by the work conditions and pay that are fought for by the union than by believing the meager shares you hold as a result of mutual fund make you an owner of the company. You are labor plain and simple and believe me when management knows that.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires"

Think of union/company balance as a pendulum. Unions were created when business owners had all the power. Everything tilted to them and labor was exploited. When unions were created the power started to shift. What we want is for the pendulum to be balanced. Take away one of the forces and the power shifts completely. There will be periods of time where the power shifts too much in one direction, but just imagine what would happen when one of those forces disappear.

DreadWing

In a FREE economy (i.e. "capitalist"), elements of market forces (i.e. labor) are allowed to band together into "consortiums" to NEGOTIATE contracts governing how much compensation is owed for services rendered.

If you oppose the existence of worker unions, but are suspiciously content with the formation of corporate collective bargaining organizations (i.e. Regional Airline Association), you either don't know what you're talking about...or you're some kind of authoritarian monster.

That's all there is to it.

JetDoc

Skywest rides on the coat tails of the other union carriers, matching other carriers collectively bargained gains just enough to keep ALPA off the property. By the tone of your posts it seems you should have gone to work there.

LineUpAndPay

Exactly this. SkyWest wasnt the ones negotiating industry leading pay. They only react to market forces. And if you want to claim well then if they are reacting to market forces that proves we don’t need unions and companies will do what’s right to attract talent, think again. The market forces are those gains brought about by ALPA and Teamsters at other carriers. Without those gains SKW would not have raised pay at all as no other carrier would have either. Notice how long it took them to react to Endevor and Republic anyways. They are just as reactive to issues as Envoy.

Cyio

This is a false comparison by such a large degree, I am surprised you even mentioned them. You either dont know what you are talking about when it comes to Skywest or are just trying to fight the union mentality for the sake of it.

Skywest, up until recently didn't have the best of anything, other than perhaps FA's. They are doing well now because the UNION represented airlines, Envoy being the exception, fought and won large gains. Skywest needed to put up or shut up else lose the stream of pilots they need.

As another poster stated, the pendulum needs to be balanced, as to far to either side is bad.

FollowMe

“Free economy (I.e. Capitalist)”

That’s comedic gold right there. Capitalism is the most anti-free economy to have existed, and it perpetuates itself on a fairy tale believed by its victims. Just as the landlords sold the enclosure movement to the people as for their own good, the moneyed and connected classes have constructed a system of exclusion, all the while telling you “freedom”. Barriers to entry, government enforcement of protection schemes and a centralized fiat currency benefit one class of people, and it sure as shoot ain’t labor.

Until wage slavery is ended and labor is free to compete on an open market to take its rightful place, unions are a necessary evil which only marginally rights the imbalance to labor that the capitalist structure has foisted upon it.

DreadWing

Millennial claptrap. Try living as a ****ing expat in a command economy nation; there's a reason the countries with the highest quality of life/purchasing power index are powered by market economies.

Corruptions like central banks, fiat currency, and corporatist elements within government aside (these are details that can be sorted intelligently), there is no CREDIBLE alternative that addresses the fundamental process of how resources/property are to be justly divided.

There is simply no empirical EVIDENCE for your exotic claim that capitalist economies are the "most anti-free to have ever existed," I'm afraid.

https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-li...jsp?title=2018

CrowneVic

I will happily pay for your ticket to move to Venezuela. I'm sure you're willing to put your money where your mouth (keyboard) is. Your parents must be proud to know every penny of their hard-earned money spent on tuition at Evergreen, or wherever it is you went to "school", was squandered away. Hope you didn't take on any debt for the "professors" there who have never lived a life outside academia.

NoValueAviator

But who is John Galt?