TO: Clownpilot
This whole discussion ignores one simple fact. That fact is the reason and I mean the entire reason why regional carriers exist. In the beginning, there were no regional carriers. There was Eastern, TWA, Pan Am, etc. That was it.
That's an interesting perspective, but it is far from being historically accurate. Regional carriers are not at all "new". That is why we invented the term "commuter airline".
We had the "flag carriers", PAA, TWA, NW Orient. The "trunk carriers" UAL, EAL, DAL, Braniff, Western, Continental, National (and others), but we also had a veritable host of "regional carriers", e.g., Allegheny, Mohawk, Lake Central, North Central, Ozark, North East, PSA, Alaska, Bonanza, Hughes Air West, Piedmont, Aloha, Hawaiian, Caribair, Trans Texas, (Even Delta before the C&S and NE mergers), etc., etc., (to many to remember all). It's just a matter of the time frame that you can remember or that you choose to cover.
I'm sure you notice I didn't mention USAir, which didn't even exist. Deregulation is the animal that changed most of that. Although there were many mergers before deregulation, there were many more after deregulation. Maybe the 60's, 70's and early 80's seems like ancient history to you, but to others that time frame is the Genesis of today's problems. If we elect to ignore history, we cannot learn from its mistakes.
The regional airlines of yesterday have all disappeared. What is important to note is they all disappeared
because they were merged into the trunks or together to create new trunks or majors. While those mergers all generated the typical squabbles over seniority, there was one essential difference from today's world. Back then, ALPA didn't treat the regional pilot groups like red headed stepchildren and the pilots of the flag carriers, trunk carriers and regional carriers all knew that they were airline pilots. There was no line in the sand (real or imagined) to differentiate the "real pilots" from the inferior pilots, like there is today.
The commuter airline appeared on the scene to fill the gaps vacated by yesterday's regional carriers and a few start ups (notably Midway and Air Florida) emerged. Initially those make-believe airlines (in the eyes of ALPA pilots) were not even admitted to the union. At one point, ALPA went so far as to create a subsidiary union (UPA) in an illogical effort to keep the unwashed out of the club. They would not even admit Air Florida and Midway until after AF failed and Midway picked up the pieces.
When UPA fell on its face, the decision was made to organize the commuters and bring them into ALPA. This was a protectionist mechanism designed to control them but not to truly assimilate them. That concept of tokenism prevails in the minds of the ALPA hierarchy to this very day. I believe, it is one of the root causes of our current problem, i.e., the inability to represent regional carriers fairly while maintaining a philosophy of bigotry and discrimination against their pilot groups.
When a trunk carrier's management eventually came up with the idea of creating a code-share feeder operation (I think it was EAL/PBA originally), ALPA made an even bigger mistake.
It allowed management to do this by creating an exemption to Scope. That mistake has come back to haunt us and now threatens to divide the union.
In 1993 when Comair introduced the regional jets, ALPA had a second chance to cure the mistake. It could have taken the position that "all jets will be operated by mainline", but it didn't even try. Instead, the powers that be chose to plug the gaping hole by inventing restrictions to Scope in an effort to limit the proliferation of these new small jets. I think the leaders saw the problem that was coming or at least the potential, but none of the major pilots groups was willing to pay the price of putting these jets back under the Scope clause. They took the money and continued to pursue the idea of adding more lines to the Scope clause.
ALPA had one separate alternative with which to "fix the problem". It could have set a course to restore the contracts of all the regional carriers flying jets to parity on scale with the mainline. That is what we had when the "old regionals" were around. The regional pilot groups didn't have the clout or leverage to do that on their own. They needed the full support of the union and the major airline pilot group to which their carrier was related. The mainline pilots took the money again and refused to sacrifice anything to help raise the bar at the small carriers. It wasn't their problem.
Unfortunately for the mainline pilot groups, the Scope strategy proved ineffective as management found ever-increasing ways to circumvent it.
Management has been winning that battle and every one of us should understand that the enemy doesn't surrender when he's winning the war.
The price of fixing the problem that we ourselves helped to create and fostered with benign neglect, grows higher with each passing day as the regional carriers convert to all-jet fleets and continue to grow.
Now the mainline pilots have recognized, finally, that this could be bigger that both of us. Nevertheless, they continue to steer the ship of ALPA on a collision course with the reef all the while shouting "I'm the Captain". The mainline pilots refuse to recognize the regional pilots as professional equals; they refuse to support and join directly in the effort to raise the bar to parity; they continue to write more useless Scope clauses that they cannot enforce and, they are now attempting to take equipment from the big regionals without taking the pilots that fly them.
This policy of the ALPA (and the APA) is a recipe for disaster. It is not working and it is not going to work. Sensible regional pilots (and there are many) are simply not going to give up their equipment to the mainline without a guarantee of job security. They are not going to allow the jets-4-jobs nonsense that abrogates their seniority. They are fighting for their rights and will continue to do so in ever increasing numbers.
If the mega carriers decide to spin off their wholly owned subsidiaries completely, you will begin to see mergers between the large regionals, which will become small majors in their own right. They will compete, not against the mainline carriers, but pilot group againsr pilot group for the flying. I assure management will not object to that. Management will be able to make "deals" with these new carriers that keep the money flowing where they want it. They will actually work together in a series of alliances that benefit both (coincidentally at the expense of labor).
The bad part is the impact that this will have on the piloting profession. The mega carriers of today will exit the narrow body flying little by little and gravitate towards the lower cost structure of the new "mini-major" carriers, which will be regional in name only. The pilot groups at the new carriers, having been shunned by the big boys of today, will form their own labor union and bid for the narrow body flying. They will win the bidding wars or the mainline pilots will have to lower their cost structure to match them in an effort to keep the flying. The outcome will be devastating financially to pilots of both groups.
Personally, I see this scenario as a nightmare and I do hope that I'm very wrong. Just the same, I don't believe that I am. If ALPA and the mainline pilot groups continue to pursue a policy of rejecting regional pilots and taking from them whenever they can, it is only a matter of time before we are at war with each other. I don't see any winners that are pilots in such a war. I think we should do whatever we need to do to avoid it.
If we are unable to resolve the issues that divide us on a fair and equitable basis within the next five years, the struggle will become inevitable. I don't ask you to agree with me, but I do ask you to think about it seriously. Not in my interest, but in your own.
Get a grip. I laugh every time I see a regional pilot spew off about one list. Regionals exist because the airline didn't want the mainline combined with the feed. The airlines are never going to combine the operations. Never.
If I were in management I would not want to combine the carriers either. I would want to do what I outline above. Perhaps not exactly but something along those lines. Personally, I am not in favor of "one list" and you would know that if you've been following these conversations, so I'm not spewing off.
I believe the answer is somewhere between one list and the present status quo. Separate, but equal. An alliance between us if you will, yet each with his own sovereignty. Complicated, but no more than today's mess. Privately, I think you should have to pay the price of your arrogance and stupidity. I don't want that to happen because I think it is not good for the profession as a whole. Yet I acknowledge that the more I listen to most of you, the less I care about what happens to you. You will lose your power to dictate what we do or don't do. In the final analysis YOU are the one's that will lose your $150/hr copilot pay rates. People like me will gain a huge pay raise even though you view it as slave labor. Laugh now if you please, but remember that "he who laughs last, laughs best".
If you continue to refuse to change, it's not my throat that I envision being cut, it is yours. You can feel free to stop talking about this whenever you choose. You may call it ridiculous as often as you please. YOU, will ultimately pay the price of your actions or inaction. You've been warned repeatedly that there are rocks in the shallows, yet you steam full speed ahead, blindly. "I'm a lighthouse. It's your call."
