Why don't you just read my post. It's written in english and no translation is necessary. There is no need for you to try and put words into my mouth.

No I don't want all regional pilots to quit, I want them to make/demand more money for the size of aircraft they fly. For new entrants to the industry, I want them to value their personal investment in time and money more.

Since furlough I have turned down two "jet for job" opportunities. One SkyWest and the other with Republic, I didn't even put in for the go jet position. My point with this statement is that even at second year pay you cannot support a family on that unless you: live with mom and dad, have a wife/girlfriend that subsidises your hobby, or have a trust fund to draw from.

I have fallen on my sword in refusing to support the low wages at regionals by refusing to return to them even at second year pay. So I am not saying someone should do anything I have not already done.

Unless we all work to improve this career it will continue to circle the drain. That includes, CFI's, Regional Pilots, LCC Pilots, and Major Pilots.
Management, RAA, and ATA just love to segregate us into different groups so they can play us against each other.

 

No I haven't been living in a cave the past ten years. More like a tunnel and that light at the end keeps turning out to be a train running my a$$ over and sucking this career even lower each time. I put up with a concessionary contract that ironically is now one of the better regional contracts.

The 60 to 65 thing was a calculated risk and would have been manageable. Parking 100 mainline aircraft while increasing regional feed was not forseeable. Again I blame management for the way they fail to run an airline, the regional pilots are just allowing themselves to be pawns used to exploit conditions and enrich the senior management.

 

You are right we are not entitled to anything. What you earn is based on what you and your contemporaries value their skills at. If you are willing to settle for $30,000 a year for the skills and training you have spent years building then that is exactly what you will be paid.

You are also right in that we all must work together to raise wages (taking low paying jobs won't do this) which is what ALPA national should be doing. Honestly I'm not sure what National is doing because everything they touch seems to further degrade the industry. I know that the locals work very hard and do the best they can at their individual airlines so don't take my statement out of context. In my opinion National has not done very much to coordinate and unify the pilots across different airlines.

 

You know the reason for my post is that i am tired of my son getting constantly screwed by his company and union! When is enough enough for this pilot group?

 

I'm sure you guys made 6 figures when you were paying your dues in the regionals though, right?

Gimme a break! Troll

 

Your ideas are solid except this one point -

Comair tried that in 2001 and it didn't work out real good.

(Actually, Comair's strike worked out great for non-ALPA SkyWest and Republic)

What would you suggest we do differently next time to get better results ?

 

OR, Comair's strike didn't work out BECAUSE OF non-ALPA Skywest and Republic.

 

Demanding it in a contract or striking would be the old fashion way. In the long run there is no way to raise the wages until the govenment gets labor friendly and imposes rules tying management pay with labor pay. People a lot smarter than me have been discussing this for years.

The rgionals will be in tight spot forever, just by the nature of their business. They will be cycled to the bottom the day they get too expensive. Comair/Air Whisk/Horizon.. The question is have Repub/SkyWest/Eagle learned this lesson. For pilots to maintain a higher wage than their peers for a sustained amount of time, the pilots have to provide a better service than their peers. This is one area ALPA screws their own.

 

You seem like an okay guy. A tad naive perhaps, but you mean well.

I understand exactly what you are saying. I put it in my own word to show how silly it is though.

There is zero chance of getting every regional pilot to quit, as I said, or demand more money, as you said, tomorrow. It's never going to happen. You said you turned down regional jobs because they are below you. I'm in the same boat. I'd never go back to a regional at this point either. But as long as there is a supply of young pilots trying to get a toehold in this industry there will be crappy regionals.

And the whole thing is set up by mainline managements with the help of mainline pilots. It's crazy UAL pax are flown by non UAL pilots...yet I bet today most domestic only itineraries on UAL will be flown by non UAL pilots.

If you ask management they'll say they HAVE to out source in order to compete. In a world where the difference between 1st page on priceline.com and 5th page is $3, every expense counts.

Now that several fleets have been parked and pilot ranks have shrunk I bet main line pilots realise the mistake of letting scope go for silly short term gains. But then there are a few that mistakenly blame the regional pilots who took the jobs mainline gave them, saying "if they just demanded as much money as we make..."

If they demanded as much they wouldn't have been given the flying in the first place.

 

BINGO!!!!!! At least somebody gets the crux of the issue.........