You know what's funny?
When Jetblue pilots get hammered on the forums about pay, many of us will put forth a very logical defense about how pilots are not to blame for the state of the industry, ie: management, fuel, deregulation, wild spending, business travelers, yields, etc. All of which I agree with.
But when we're sitting in the bar or the crewroom and the discussion of pilot pay/benefits comes up, it's frequently greedy pilots in concert with ALPA who did the industry in - AND - we have to be careful that we don't meet the same fate as everyone else. How? By keeping the unions out and waiting for the demise of some poor legacy carrier.
Nothing is more pathetic than a pilot who BELIEVES that he is over paid or a pilot who subscribes to the management notion that YOU'RE LUCKY TO HAVE A JOB.
We are worth more because of the job that we do and the skills that we possess - not because we're ambitious egotists. We are worth more because it took us 10 years of poverty level internship to set foot in a heavy iron cockpit and we are worth more because we make decisions and utilize knowledge that safely moves millions of people from point A to point B in all kinds of weather at all hours of the day.
To me, the discussion of what the industry can afford in terms of pilot pay has got to end - because management would love to have THAT discussion for another 3 years. Fares go lower and the race to the bottom continues.
Before you all jump in and say "HA!, I KNEW IT!" I will tell you that there are hundreds of Jetblue pilots who understand what a race to the bottom is and there are hundreds of pilots who understand that unions are NOT the reason we are in the state that we are in. Many of us understand that unions are the reason we have what we have because we've dealt with countless iterations of management all with the same marching orders from their boards and their shareholders.
What is not helpful at all is when we read on these boards that Jetblue pilots are scabs or that there is some deliberate collective effort to undermine the industry. Statements like these only add fuel to the "ALPA is the devil" crowd at Jetblue and makes any effort at having a reasonable discourse about collective bargaining more difficult.
