Why are we so EXPENDABLE?
 

Guys, am I wrong or do we always seem to be at the mercy of the higher ups who make all the decisions regardless of how many of us end up on the streets. Can someone tell me of a profession that is treated as bad as we are?

Other than migrant farm labor and prostitutes, no.

Enron
World Com
Goldman Sachs
WalMart

I could go on but I hope you get the idea. And prostitutes get market rate so even they have one up on us.

As long as there are alter-egos out there, as long as guys keep voting subpar contracts just to fly a shinny jet, as long as there are guys that don't give a ******* about this segment of the industry, then we will continue to be treated this way.

As long as we are willing to fight each other rather than come together. The Fee for Departure Work Group is working no seniority migration and contract standards. Are you willing to allow pilots come over to your airline with seniority if theirs sends aircraft to yours?

We're a labor group. In other words we are an expense on the P&L much like the cost of tires. As sad as that sounds.

That does tend to be the way this industry has evolved. There are people out there who will do this job simply because they enjoy flying and that kills our leverage with the company. Why does the company allow scheduling to repeatedly violate contract. You catch them all that happens is you can greive it. Whats the desciplinary action? NONE!!!!! On the other hand a pilot would get fired for if cuaght operating outside of standard... Sorry for the rant i'm currently in the middle of a greivance. But the point is if you say screw this i'm outta here someone will run like hell to take your spot to fly that pretty and shinny jet. No one is lining up to be schedulers. That's why we are expandable.

Or to make it even more simple, we are JUST labor.

Even though the most educated, skilled, trained, accountable blah blah blah.......

At the end of the day, we don't look any different in managements eyes than any other group of labor at the airline. But like I said in another thread, at the regional level we the pilots are the biggest and most expensive labor. Thereby, putting the biggest target on us.

And currently, the supply of our type of labor is high, the demand for that labor is low.

All good points.

I'll just add that allowing jets at other than mainline carriers helped. Flying from MCI to DCA is not regional. Neither is IAH to YYZ. Those do not "feed" mainline airplanes. They replace them.

Once mainline saw they could push these flights to a cheaper option, there was no stopping them. Look at Midex. A little over a year ago, they had about 40 717/MD80s (plus Skyways ~16 328J/1900D). Now there are 9 717s plus Republic's 170 and Skywest's CRJs.

You will always be at the mercy of the company. The only people who aren't at the mercy of the company are the bosses. Become a boss and you can make the decisions. It's pretty simple.