Nothing is permanent.

The buzzword for much of my career was "CONCESSIONS" so...

Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.

 

just a matter of time until management feels the worst of the shortage is over and they start demanding concessions again…. They’ll trade more planes (faster upgrade means faster move to legacy), reduced throttling of flow (faster flow), vs losing flying to a cheaper pilot group, no upgrades, some downgrades, and threats of being Comair II if you don’t cave in like PSA did last time. I said years ago this would happen once management felt the shortage wasn’t as big an issue anymore. I said that all the ALPA & Teamster regional unions needed to do like mainline and match each others contracts so no pilot group had a cost advantage to exploit with “we have to be more competitive than brand X pilots,” or the whipsaw would start again.

At this point the only winning strategy is to instruct the NC that as soon as they talk anything concessionary, get up, tell them to call us when they’re serious, and walk out and leave…. a section 6 status quo is better than concessions. Eventually they’ll need signed labor contracts to secure better industry leveraging. Every regional union (and SkyPest student council) needs to just go status quo and walk out until they’re ready to be realistic. They can watch hiring tank as guys go to the regionals that do value their employees.

We learned the hard way, that eventually one regional group will crack in exchange for growth and flow that gets them to a legacy sooner. The whipsaw only works because of selfish self interest being exploited. It’s a winning strategy that has worked for them for over 50 years,

The real answer is to get the RLA modified commensurate with modern business practices. When the RLA was written there was no outsourced contract flying. You couldn’t whipsaw a TWA pilot by threatening to give the flying to PanAm. Pilots also had the real ability to do slow downs or strikes. The RLA has failed to keep pace with the industry realities and it has hamstrung pilots and unions.

As it is, at a contract carrier, you can fight and drag things out, but eventually the companies will get something close to what they wanted.

Truth is the pilot shortage was caused by management and their never ending concessions making the job so unattractive that few wanted it. If they enjoy the current ease at staffing their airline, they need to seriously reevaluate their cost cutting or they’ll create the shortage all over again.

 

Fill it out everybody! Can’t hurt!