Dude said:
Those of you that would gladly walk out forever on ASA remember this: you may get what you ask for.
I am certainly not happy with our management but you provide a better plan to take an intellectually bankrupt business model and make money with it. We operate in an environment that does not reward mediocrity. Sadly, the employees in Atlanta (some crews included) are mediocre at best. This industry demands that people adapt to the changing marketplace and those who don't, fail. I'm afraid it isn't as simple as drinking kool-aid, it's common-sense. Those of you that would burn the joint down have had very little experience at anything else. Most people do not have the ability to renegotiate their working agreement every 4-5 years and most do not the input that we do. I am not saying that the current state of affairs is acceptable, because it clearly isn't; but to blindly say that it's worth shutting the company down is immature and childish.
We all make choices and have to live with them. My choice is to give our new parent a chance to make this a pleasurable place to work. I think that is a lot more plausible than achieving it through a strike. Our union and management have misused our trust and for that I would rather follow my company than my union if I have to make a choice. My company at least offers me a paycheck, the union just takes my money and has the Balls to lecture me about my lack of volunteerism. Take my 2% and hire someone to do the work we pay you for. Our local guys, for the most part, are okay but they get their cues from Herndon and for that reason I do not trust them to negotiate in my best interests. A union with as many resources should be able to come up with an analysis to show management where inefficiencies are and to pull the cost from there and not our paycheck. Instead, they beat their chests a little harder and insists that profits will sustain more pay. It ain't working that way.
Our union, our management, and ourselves are to blame for the mess we are in. ALPA has refused to adapt and change the way they negotiate, management has failed to realize that a happy workforce is a productive one and that their business model sucks, and we continue to foam at the mouth at the prospect of new equipment, new flying or taking someone elses. All I ask is that before you make a cavalier comment like "burn it down", ask yourself if you have done anything to make this place better. I doubt you have. If your so enlightened, please offer a strategy or a plan to make this $5.00 product produce more than $2.50. Good luck.
I sort of see what you are trying to say, but you are not being completely logical. You say the current state of affairs is unacceptable, yet you accept waiting out the current state of affairs hoping that someone else will make your life better. You ask if others have done anything to make this place better, but you refuse to do so yourself.
You say that ALPA should submit a better business plan for running the airline to management. Unfortunately, that’s not how this business works. You have little understanding of what a union is or what you expect it to do. A union is simply what it sounds like, a group of similar people getting together, with the express purpose of negotiating as a single entity instead of as a bunch of disparate individuals.
The purpose of a pilot union is not to run an airline--that’s management’s job! The union just makes sure we are all speaking with the same voice when we tell management what we will and will not accept. “Most people” outside of aviation that you speak of, more than likely have much more individualistic jobs, and so it makes sense to negotiate one-on-one with their employers. If they threaten to leave, their employer has to weigh how difficult it will be to replace their unique capabilities, and so both sides have negotiating capital.
In the airline industry, for safety reasons, pilots are trained by design to be as identical to thousands of other pilots as is humanly possible. The unfortunate result is, if one pilot tells management he’s leaving, he has absolutely no negotiating strength. Management just says “good riddance” as they hire his cheaper replacement. A union is the ONLY way pilots have a say in how things will be run.
I believe that our current MEC leaders are honest individuals. They are negotiating based on the results of all the polls we have been taking. Period. They know what we want, and are asking for it. No super-secret Herndon agenda to put you on the street so General Lee can take your job.
Do your job, do it well, but be ready to tell management through your union how you wish to be treated. Management, even JA, would be very happy to pay you as little as possible and make you work as long and hard as possible. YOU are the only one who draws the line. Decide where that line is, and then stick to it!
