Whats wrong with the pilot profession.
 

Found this article online and it seems to explain the problems with our profession. Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

Unions and Airlines

Completely wrong in every section. I gave up reading 1/2 way through since his conclusions were so wrong.

It's five years old AND poorly written.

Several years ago, I emailed the author my points disagreeing with him on basically everything he had written. He never responded. Not surprised.

It reads like he had a deadline he'd forgotten about until an hour before. And was being paid for by some organization with the word "freedom" in it's name.

I can sum it up....Railway Labor Act.

A 79 year old outdated act which should have been repealed years ago

I think the far bigger problem is/was the existence and proliferation of out sourced flying - the existence of jet regionals.

So the RLA isn't in effect and you can strike sooner. Management caves in and you get a good contract. Airline B underbids your airline and gets growth. Your airline shrinks. Newco grows and attracts pilots to low wages in the pursuit of turbine PIC. All so you can hopefully start over at the mainline after a decade working at a C scale operation or two.

ALPA used to have decision 83 as a back stop for pilot pay. Now ALPA pilots have to negotiate against each other to be the cheapest. Pattern bargaining only works when there is meaningful scope.

Fix the profession. Kill the regionals.

Accepting slave wages for the privilege of flying a shiny jet is the biggest problem.

What's killed it really was 911 and management greed and realization that they can turn flying into a greyhound operation meaning low wages for employees. That's what they want to pay you 50k, they don't want us to have a career. Problem is that doesn't work for the piloting profession, they either need to pay or they won't find pilots it's pretty simple.