Typhoon1244 said:Okay, I'll admit it: I just had an ugly picture painted in my head by a certain former EAL striker, and I need someone to hold me and tell me everything'll be okay.
I've noticed that since the informational picketing began in ATL a while back, my fellow ASA pilots have become more and more militant. It seems everybody I talk to is "ready to walk."
The question that was put to me is this: if the ASA pilots are released and walk, what's to stop the company from cutting the strikers off at the knees by taking ASA's assets and scabs--and let's not kid ourselves; there will be scabs--and rolling them into the rest of DCI (i.e. Comair), thus eliminating us troublesome ASA pilots altogether?
Is such a scenario worth worrying about? Or is this unlikely?
I would say unlikely.
It would be an enormous task to cover our flying. Remember, we will have nearly 50% of all DAL ATL departures starting 1 Feb. They couldn't simply roll our "assets" (does any wholly owned DCI actually have any real assets?) into someone else because there would be no one trained quickly enough to operate those assets. This is the same question the Comair pilots successfully answered in '00.
As for scabs, I find that doubtful too. True, we have seen many pilots out there willing to do our job for less, but that doesn't mean they're ready to cross a picket line and face the consequences of doing such. Comair did not attempt to hire scabs, and the only scabs from that strike were management pilots who "volunteered" to move airplanes around in non revenue operations.
Regarding pilot militency, I would agree that it is the highest I've ever seen it. Our management has been following the principle of "the beatings will continue until morale improves" for quite some time, and it clearly doesn't work.
I would say that many of our FOs and even some captains are ready to outright quit and find work outside the industry if this contract doesn't meet our expectations.
This job is fun, but it's not worth the abuse we get for our compensation level. If our corrupt, ignorant, abusive, power hungry, inept, good old boy, TWA killing management team doesn't realize how tired our pilots are of the abuse, they will see this company tank just like the last company they tried to run. (Yeah, Thibadeau helped run TWA into the ground, and brought his management techniques and some buddies down with him).
Our best bet is actually not to strike. Angry employees make for unhappy customers. Ask US Air. That's the lesson our management is learning the hard way.
