hmmm

[greyhound]

Hmmmm..

I like the idea about improving the wages at the new-hire level.


This way when you get fed up with your company you will be more willing to move to another airline without worrying about having to make $15,000 all over again.

If ALL regionals paid a decent wage from the beginning. You could strike or quit, and no matter what happens to you're airline.
(goes out of business) Who cares! You go look somewhere else and know that you won't starve when you start all over at another company..

One more thing.
The workforces at the regional's are getting senior everyday.(Not much advancement to the majors.) The more senior pilots get, the more they will be getting paid.
Eventually, RJ's will not be as profitable, so the "remaining" majors might bring back the flying to themselves.

You could speed up this process by demanding better pay so there will not be any more incentives to give the flying to the regional (cheaper) partners.

 

[rvsm410]

Just another Food for thought Idea.

Give this some thought, maybe its pie-in-the sky right now, but maybe it could work to a win win for us and the airlines someday.

Since most company pilots and employees are union represented anyhow, why not have ONE "national union" that covers all pilots, another for F/A's, one for dispatchers, etc.....

In the case for pilots, This new union would set up a "national" standard pay rate for each aircraft type and years of experience flying that type aircraft. This Union would take into consideration COLA for high cost areas, set up basic QQL , guaranteed hours/month etc...for all.
Airlines would input there cost and hiring requirments for each type of aircraft and then averaged across the board for all carriers, then a contract negociated to establish a national pay scale observed by all airlines no matter where or for whom you worked for.....

Just an example: So your at ABC airline with 3 years as an Rj FO making $45/hr and the company folds, or you decided to work somewhere else, you are in good standing when you left ABC.... you already got interviewed at XYZ airlines and they want to hire you as an Rj FO with 3 yrs experience in the IAD area. They are required by the "National" union to pay you the same $45/hr you made at ABC and the COLA for IAD as well.

The airlines could ONLY hire pilots from this union, all others would be considered SCABS and forever be banned from joining in the future, any airline that attempted to hire a person not represented by the National Union would face established penalties and fines for the action.

This unon also establishes through contract what the minimum requirements are to be accepted into this union, i.e. 2000 tt 1000 Muti, 500 inst, etc... what ever else. Down the road, the unon could establish its own benefits center funded by the airlines to reduce there overhead, (outsource it to the National Union) to include retirement funds.

Of course each company would still have seniority lists as today that establishes who goes first in a layoff, or has priority over another company employee.

Anyway, maybe I'm crazy, but it was just an idea, a starting point of sorts that might help establish and level the playing field for all airline employees. I'm sure ALPA, DALPA, APA and the others would be against this because they are big business, this is just another idea.
The bottom line as well all know today, if cost go up then it has to get passed to the consumer in higher prices, people will have to get use to paying more for a ticket in the future. Not as high as mainline, but not as low as LCC's today....

Sure this sounds like socialized work rules, and your right, the complaints about salary and other work rules are a direct result of the free enterprise system in our country.
The way I see it, either we get used to the race to the bottom, or something needs to change that meets the needs of the employees and the airlines ability to operate with a profit.