Here’s my take on the open time issue:
1. Regardless of whether an airline has pilots furloughed or about to be furloughed, the airline will require fewer pilots (fewer jobs, fewer union members, less union dues) if some pilots pick up open time. I think it’s hypocritical to say that picking up open time is okay once an airline has settled its labor issues, but not okay during contentious contract negotiations. Either way, there will be fewer union jobs.
2. If you don’t think it’s okay to allow crewmembers to pick up open time, then why did YOU (collectively as a pilot bargaining group) vote in a contract that allows for picking up open time? If you think picking up open time is wrong, don’t vote in a contract that provides for it.
3. During contract negotiations under the Railway Labor Act, both the airline and union are required by Federal law to maintain the status quo, which essentially means not doing anything you wouldn’t normally do in the normal course of business to exert pressure on the other party to settle the contract. Any individual pilot is free to make the choice of whether to work extra time for themselves. Any appearance, regardless of whether it can and will ultimately be proven in court, that the pilot group is putting pressure on other pilots not to pick up open time, is grounds for the company to seek legal action against the union in Federal court. This will only serve to drag out the negotiations further, and cost more, a situation in which no-one wins.
4. In today’s economic climate, airlines need to do what they can to remain competitive so they can continue to exist and provide the jobs that you’re ‘fighting’ for. Part of that is doing more with less. That’s just the reality of business. The result of forcing your airline to employ more pilots to do the same work that a competing airline can do with fewer pilots will ultimately be that more business, and hence more jobs, will go to the competing airline, and more jobs will be lost from your airline, assuming the airline can even remain in business. That’s the view of a realist. The idealist’s view on the other hand is: give us what we want or we’ll force you out of business. At the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself whether to be a realist and be able to feed your family, or whether to be an idealist and feel good.
5. A popular argument for higher pilot pay and better working conditions is that pilots are, and should be, treated and paid as professionals. If you want to be paid and treated as a professional, then you have to ACT like a professional. How professional is it to resort to name-calling, blacklisting, bullying, and intimidating other members of your “profession” who disagree with you? Just as YOUR individual decision not to pick up open time because YOU don’t want to be furloughed so YOU can keep YOUR job and feed YOUR family, should be respected; so should the individual decision of the pilot who wants to pick up open time so HE/SHE can increase HIS/HER income in order to feed HIS/HER family, be respected.
