Quote:
Originally Posted by ShyGuy
It's a seniority driven system, that's why you have each pilot looking out only for número uno. Picket line means pilots are fighting hard to be paid fair wages and withholding their services. Scabs go to work anyway across the picket line. Why? You'd have to ask a scab. But I imagine the reasons are the same.
I still don't get how this is any different than one airline trying to fight for a better contract while another airlines pilots agree to take concessions for more planes and is awarded flying from airline #1 and that airline then subsequently loses planes and pilots. Concessionary pilots say they have bills and a mortgage to pay and that you weren't gonna pay those. Again, looking out for número uno. Yeah yeah, it's "not the same as scabbing" but the results and reasons are all the same.
My thoughts exactly. No dog in the fight, but every time I read these viscerally agitated fighting words about the concept of scabs, I keep getting mental images of the regional airline industry as a whole. Why that's considered an invalid correlation, is beyond illogical to me.
The Hunger Games that is our labor market is not confined to just airline labor dynamics. Furthermore, the legitimacy of unions within the umbrella of an RLA framework is heel-clicking at best. Why then do military retirees, independently wealthy or spousal-subsidized regional hobby pilots not considered scabs? The net effect is the same. Hell, many would do it part-time if they could. I'm not advocating anybody cross a picket line, I'm just saying I would like to see a rational even-tempered argument for why these things are different. Otherwise it reeks of people embittered about describing the water that is the Hunger Games, which defines us as a labor pool.
As to the guy crossing a picket line to keep his kid's meds affordable, yeah that's a policy problem we created as a Country. I wouldn't crucify the guy for a non-choice that we ALL created by tolerating it politically (non-universal health care and employer-tied subsidy) because we're 'Muricans and hypocrites that believe that
my entitlements are earned rights but
your entitlements are welfare. Healthcare is the weakest argument with which I could attempt to crucify a scab.