[QUOTE=AA767AV8TOR]

Here's a personal story on a scab. My old A/C from the Air Force got out in the late 80's, couldn't find a job, panicked, and crossed the line for Eastern. Sure he got to fly 757's for awhile, but at soon as Eastern shut down, he was branded for life. He ended up teaching 7th grade. There are many scab lists around.

QUOTE]

I don't support being a Scab either however; JetBlue Airtran, Sowthwest and many other airlines are full of Eastern scabs. I don't believe that it really is the end of the road. It might keep you from AA or Delta, but in a few years they could be gone anyway. It is my opinion that working for companies like Allegiant, Airtran and Jetblue is like being a scab. When a pilot accepts employment at 1/3 of major airline pay they are, in a way, being a scab. Every time a new job is created at a low cost airline one disappears at a good company. Airlines are realizing the threat and are working to lower pay and benefits to match low cost companies. After a while a union at AA will not matter since competition will force them to lower wages. What good is a union against such an onslaught? Unions don't have as much leverage as they use to and are loosing power every day. A lot of the reason that I like this forum so much is because the attitudes and opinions remind me of the good old days. It doesn't reflect reality however. It is kind of like the band playing softly in the background while the Titanic sinks underneath them.

 

BS !! WHAT a LOAD of unmitigated CRAP!!

Do yourself a favor and get educated on the history of your industry! You OBVIOUSLY have not read FLYING THE LINE.

It was the pilot’s unions, NOT the FAA, who forced decent duty times and safety standards. The FAA would loosen standards up, under pressure from airline managements, if it were NOT for ALPA-and- APA. Smarten up!

On the subject of SCABS. Once a SCAB . . ALWAYS a SCAB! There ARE no excuses for crossing a picket line! You are the lowest of the low, if you stab a fellow worker in the back and dishonor your industry. Your name will go down in infamy and you will be known as SCUM everywhere you go -and your Jepp bag will end up in Hong Kong, full of dog excrement!

 

My understanding is that the constituants(pilots) don't feel like their union represents their interest and does nothing to promote public understanding, so the pilots end up looking like money grubbing jerks who are killing the industry.

 

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a SCAB. A SCAB is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water-logged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carriers a tumor of rotten principles.

When a SCAB comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to SCAB as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentlemen compared with a SCAB. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A SCAB HASN'T!

Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, Judas Iscariot sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strike-breaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow-men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust or corporation.

- by Jack London, author & social critic, 1915

************************************************

Not much has changed, ask a UAL SCAB from the 1985 strike how well they are treated today. Nobody has forgotten, nor will they ever.

 

Capt. Drew....Welcome back. Haven't "seen" you around here for a while.

 

Do yourself a favor and get educated on the history of your industry! You OBVIOUSLY have not read FLYING THE LINE.

That is my point exactly. The past will not repeat itself. The effects of deregulation are still unfolding. The future will be very different and needs to be studied. In the past there were fewer pilots and fewer opportunities for them to gain quality experience. In the past the industry had maximum new hire age limits of 30. Today we have a flood of student loan funded pilots and low cost start ups that will eventually take over the industry. Desperate young aviators are jumping at jobs that pay 18,000 a year. Even the courts are swinging against the Union.
I think that we all agree that an employee scab who crosses the line is something to be looked down upon, however what about the replacement worker scab? I just read that Northwest FA's are being forced to train their own replacements in case of a strike. It is my opinion that every pilot who accepts a position at a low cost carrier is like a replacement worker because they are taking customers away from a legacy carrier. Eventually most pilots in the industry figure out that they will never make it to a major. They are stuck as a Dash 8 or EMB 120 Captain for their career. When an opportunity to jump to a legacy carrier as a replacement worker comes up they will take it.
Eastern Scabs are enjoying comfortable positions at Jetblue, Frontier and Airtran. The legacy carriers are the only places that even care about Scabs, and they are in danger of going away. The past is the past. Most would agree that the glory days are over. What is coming next? That is what I am interested in. Enjoy your retirement.

 

I'll be interested to know how that works out for you.

Joking aside...interesting points.

 

Dear Captain Drew:

When the ALPA pilots at NWA cross the mechanics picket line, will they be Scabs? When the ALPA pilots at EAL crossed the FEIA picket line(early 1960s) were they Scabs? Were the EAL PFEs that crossed and placed on the pilot seniority list Scabs? When Cathay Pacific management(1995) used UPAS (owned by ALPA) to recruit non seniorty list Captains, F/Os, and FEs to crew their freighters at a much reduced wage would you have a name for them?

I'm glad you gave the responsibility for the flight and duty time regs we operate under to the unions. Probably the worst in the world. The Brits did a major revision over 30 years ago. We still fly under the same ones that were written for Connies and DC6/7s.

Have you not heard that ALPA now says once a Scab not always a Scab? Heck I've been told that the present MEC Chairman of Continental crossed.


Regards,

George III

 

You raise good points, Fox.

If it's all about scabs, then a sizeable % of FedEx, United, Continental, UPS, and plenty of others should be on scab lists and be passed out so that the scabs around us are taken to task for their decisions.

Yet that's not what's happening. Scabs have been brought into the fold at ALPA carriers.

 

this is true to our everlasting shame. that and the fact that all 3 IAH reps and most of the GUM & CLE reps are scabs. sort of takes away the mystery as to why our latest contract was shoved up our asses harder by the union than the company.