Unions
First of all, if you look at my profile you'll see that I don't work for any airline, but I have been a student of the industry for many years.
Second, I agree that unions have a place in the industry in matters of safety and training. When I speak of unions I include all the unions in the industry (pilots, FA's, Machinists, etc.).
My position centers on the facts and the fact of the matter is that the industry is in a state of change and the change is monumental in its history.
Airlines with unions can and do make money. Look at SW and many of the so-called regionals. What do they have that the majors do not? They have control of their labor costs. What do they share with the majors? They all have no pricing power. The majors especially are hit hard by this fact. Fares remain low and that affects revenue. Why doesn't McDonalds charge $10 for a Big Mac? Because no one will buy them, other issues aside. Why don't the airlines raise fares? No one will pay them. That fact even effects SW.
but ALPA and APA have been nothing but professionals thru the good times and bad. Case study: United ALPA and their leadership in helping UAL recover from the economic troubles their management got them into with large debts structured such that they need boom times just to make their payments
I would have to disagree. Fortune Magazine did a story back in December in which they reported some of the details in the ALPA proposal for wage concessions. The six year plan had cuts in the first years but at the end of the six years had wages back above the levels of the current contract. As for the Machinists, did the bankruptcy court have to order them to accept the cuts?
I do agree that United's management is partly to blame. Management agreed to huge wage increases when it knew that there was no way to pay them without layoffs. They buckled under the pressure of the work slowdowns.
What kind of warped crack-logic is that?
Let's try to be professional here.
We can only hope the Comair and ASA pilots keep up their good work in inching their contracts up to "major airline" quality..... I think over time, when they are making what they deserve on CRJ-700/900 (150,000/180,000K) and when they have a pention style retirement, Useless Air and Delta will have to re-think their business plan, and maybe they'll try to run an airline again, instead of a bank or walmart
I agree that there needs to be more equality between the two but coupled with that there needs to be more portability between companies. There are too many barriers to movement from one company to another. Case in point: UAL is contracting but ACA for example is growing. If pilots had the ability to move without having to start at the bottom much of ACA's growth could have come for furloughed United pilots.
You are also correct about business plans. UAL didn't get the loan because they had no plan. That brings me back to my original point. The industry is changing. We need to change with it and not resist it. The change is going to happen. The question is whether the future is full of Eastern's or not.
Hog
