I think you have to draw a line somewhere. They did not fly "struck" work. There was no strike. If you called any airline pilot a Scab for "taking" flying/airplanes away from another airline, then most of the pilots in the US would be scabs.

 

Texas International was a cool airline - I liked their livery. Hate Lorenzo though. Muse Air was also a cool airline - kind of like Midwest - really classy service. When oil gets down to $20bbl I am going to buy DC-9's, buy the TI name and paint the planes that way, and start an LCC!

 

JUMPSEAT PROTECTION LIST MAR 01 (chg 5)

Continental “Preferential Hire” List

The people listed below did not actually cross the picket line. Toward the end of the 1983 strike these folks called the companyand asked to be put on the “Preferential Hire” list to come back to work. The strike ended a short time later and these folks never got the chance to cross the picket line (some ONLY because Lorenzo wanted to make a point and didn’t call them right away, if at
all). They asked to come back to work (strikers be damned!) when called. Some even sued over the issue. Make your own
judgement…

I was perusing this list and low and behold we have one of our "finest" right here at Alaska on this Preferential Hire list! Has there ever been an update to the list past March 01?

 

I believe he was recently your VP of Flight Ops wasn't he?

 

He sure was!

 

Otto. While maybe not struck work, everyone knew what Lorenzo was doing and that was taking resources from TI and giving it to an alter-ego organization in house. He was 'whipsawing' the pilot group and the obvious shot across the bow was that TI was going to shrink while Apple or NY Air (which was first) was going to get TI's assets.

Lorenzo did the same thing when he took over Eastern. He moved or sold assets to for a pittance to other companies he had formed. He sold one of the few assets that ever made money, SODA the Eastern reservation system for pennies on the dollar.

A true dirtbag...

 

Lorenzo did the same thing when he took over Eastern. He moved or sold assets to for a pittance to other companies he had formed. He sold one of the few assets that ever made money, SODA the Eastern reservation system for pennies on the dollar.
A true dirtbag...[/quote]
As an Eastern A300 s/o I was doing the walkaround on fine day in IAH next to a CAL A300. A nice new air cart was between our aircraft with a nice new CAL logo sticker. THERE WAS AN EAL STICKER UNDERNEATH! Thats when I decided to bail and go freight(1987). It was not the CAL pilots fault by ANY stretch....it was dirtbag business by Frank and the like.

 

Agreed 100%, but this is not much different than the airlines and management of today. Especially at the regional level. The pilots are not to blame. I could never call them scabs. Management is a different story, but I use other terms for them.

 

I was just pointing out that the Apple/NY Air guys knew what was happening. And yes, you will always find someone who will do the job for less than you will.

As for management, I was never part of it so I didn't have the big picture from from ground level, the ranks do seem to be over-populated with dirtbags and amoral individuals.

The cycle is almost Biblical though. Some dirtbag is finally ousted and a new guy comes in promising to take everyone to the promised land be it Wolf, Tilton or whomever. The high desire for success and a change creates a momentary period which many consider the honeymoon. Employees grant the new guy/gal a bank account of trust and hope which more often than not, s/he squanders or fails to achieve expected goals. Then, like Moses and the 'children', everyone gets grumpy and wants to go back to the good old days which never existed.

I enjoyed flying the machines but in the last few years the airline industry has changed so much that as much as I miss it (the crews, the machines and the good layvers), I am glad I am no longer there. As one old friend said, "When we started it was a free jet ride to the next party." I said,"It doesn't get better than this." and we were both right.

 

1996 on my list...