Others value ALPA more than many of its members

[Rez O. Lewshun]

The answer is longevity pay, which links your payscale to your ALPA longevity. ALPA is already in the process of working on this at the regional level, and most of the regional MECs have agreed to the framework. Hopefully the idea will take hold and spread to the major carriers also. Time will tell.

who is going to pay for that?

another answer is higher first year pay system wide

 

[CopilotDoug]

another answer is higher first year pay system wide

At the expense of the more senior pilots who are knocking on the door of retirement? You'll have more calls for decertification.

 

[PCL_128]

At the expense of the more senior pilots who are knocking on the door of retirement? You'll have more calls for decertification.

Pilots that are nearing retirement are a distinct minority. Everyone likes to claim that the senior pilots are responsible for all of the contract ills that they perceive, but the fact is, all contracts require a majority vote to ratify, and by definition, a majority can't be "senior." Junior pilots are just as responsible as the senior pilots for pathetic early-year payrates. Everyone forgets what it's like to be on first year pay after they reach that 13th month.

 

[Freight Dog]

Everyone forgets what it's like to be on first year pay after they reach that 13th month.

WRONG! I was one of the big proponents to change that B.S. at Aloha. I suggested that to number of our senior captains, and EVERY SINGLE ONE said no f**king way!!!

They'd ask me... "would you give up your payraise for an unknown starting here?"
My answer, every time, was absofrigginlutely. To pay a 737 driver the pay we were paying the first year, in Hawaii no less, was criminal. It was on par with commuters, with 2nd year being something like a 125% pay raise.

Someone asked... could we have dicked up this industry and profession if we intentionally tried? Frankly, I don't think so...

 

[PCL_128]

Freight Dog, you're one of the exceptions. Most pilots, including the relatively junior, are not willing to focus their efforts on raising first year pay. That's our problem. Blaming the very few that are senior isn't intellectually honest, since the "senior" don't have the strength in numbers to dictate policy and pass CBAs.