So can you change that paradigm by no taking that mentality. can you begin to come to work and look out for your fellow pilot?
Wrong guy. Trust me, you're barking up the wrong tree telling ME to come to work and look out for my fellow pilot.
That is fair... so what now?
Whoa, wait a second. What's fair? That their own MEC's they paid dues to screwed them over for failure to follow up on grievances? sign side letters to give the company relief and not get anything back just for "good will"? fail to strike when the majority of the membership indicates that they would rather strike than take a pay cut?
Or just fair that they're pi*sed off after that kind of treatment?
It starts with each one of us.. on our own accord.
Yes, it does. People want leadership, however. Most pilots are self-starters IF, and ONLY IF they KNOW they are going to be rewarded for their efforts. That takes Leadership to get them moving in the right direction.
Prater understands this and is off to a good start with some big promises and a lot of hype. He's starting to motivate a group who has been so resigned to the inevitable downfall of the profession that they had all but given up.
He needs to keep that motivation up, get more people involved, then start winning some battles. The more things he is able to do, the more people will get on board.
That's just the way life is. I know in your utopian society that everyone would be self-motivating without the knowledge that they WILL gain something out of it. It's just that pilots as professionals have simply been beaten into submission, for lack of a better term. The only self-starters left are all involved with their MEC's, on committees already, and face a large uphill battle with the rest of the resigned majority.
I'd argue that ths is a romantic ideal of the past. Actually in the past there have always been more worse times than better times... specifically in terms of furlough.
True. But the job was always WORTH RETURNING TO.
That's not the case anymore. Many, many people are bypassing recall and have moved on to other careers in real estate, marketing, non-aviation management, etc.
THOSE are the better times. Before ALPA sold Scope for a few extra bucks. Before pilots were willing to eat their young. Before pilots kept giving concessions rather than flinging the sabos in the machinery.
Pandora's box has been opened. It will take hard work, impeccable leadership, and a LOT of self-sacrifice IF it's to get better at all.
As long as we keep voting in pro management Presidents, who own't allow strikes and NMB reps who favor managements, and not giving to the PAC I am sure we will. I know I know.. I keep going back to the membership and thier repsonsibility to empower the labor movement, whether it is union leadership or congressional leadership...
First, there haven't been any pro-labor candidates in a LONG time. There certainly aren't any in the upcoming election that I can see either. Some might PREACH pro-labor, but their records don't back that claim.
Second, it's a paradox. Labor needs to empower Leadership. Leadership needs to Lead the Labor group by showing EXACTLY how they're going to "Take it back".
The people are tired of empty promises, and words alone aren't going to motivate them.
If you want to get radical we can, but are we prepared for the backlash? During the Repub controlled congress you can bet your last dollar that the backlash would have been legislation making it even more difficult to do our jobs.. The RLA maybe changed furhter in managements favor.
Your thoughts?
Possibly. Then we push back even harder.
I've said it before: things will get worse before they get better. There is absolutely ZERO incentive for lawmakers to help our profession, or ANY organized labor profession for that matter.
Better wages and better QOL almost always result in a higher cost to any individual company. They usually pass that cost onto the consumer. Then the consumer yells and screams at their Congressmen and Senators that whatever goods that company manufactures just went up in price by 10% or more.
So the people who make the laws in this company either get blasted by the employees of those companies who have been decimated in the last decade, or they get blasted by their non-union constituents who bear the brunt of those price increases.
For the majority of airlines out there (notable exceptions of SWA, FDX, UPS, etc): "War is the ONLY answer. It's come to that."
