Whatever works isn't good enough for me.....I need more details.[/I]
Use your own imagination, here. Frankly, these 'details' of what would be offered to the existing ML pilot group aren't that important. Conceptually, in this scenario, they would be sufficient to garner the support of the ML seniority list, which would be important, but not critical, to this possible nightmare scenario moving forward. Whatever incentives offered would not be enough to alter the long term profitability of the arrangement. (Possible examples: an extra percent on the existing ML pay scale, a separate, higher, pay scale for existing ML pilots in the event they are displaced down to an RJ, slight improvements to the existing retirement vehicles...etc.)
Actually I think the senior ML guys might be asked to subsidize this scheme in the form of flatten compensation, whereas they are expecting to get some back after all these years of loss. They will fight hard... possibly killing the whole deal.
Agree, completely, the existing ML guys would kill the agreement if they had to pay for it, as they should. Not a single dime would have to come from the existing ML list, however, to make this happen. The ML guys would be interested in this arrangement for the furlough protection bennies you've already mentioned. Toss in a few minor improvements to the existing ML agreements and it could even be conceptually done outside of a major negotiation cycle, thus getting 'some back'. The ML HR dept still gets to interview everyone before they enter basic indoc with the right to refuse those who don't meet ML 'standards'.
Yikes! The 15/30 is what is going to pay for it. We are already indentured. We borrow the first half only to pay ourselves back for the second half. This will further the decline of the profession.
The senior guys have their cake and eat it too. They've got seniority. Job protection and the junior pilots expense, and they have the best schedules, vacation and benefits.
The funding of this needs to come from in part management, because they are responsible for the Colganizing of the industry and from the senior guys.
Agree with all three of these points. It's important to constantly realize, which I suspect you have, but I fear others have not, that it's not the goal of the airline management to provide a rewarding, stable career to the pilots.
The funding would come not from management, but from the givebacks on wages and benefits offered up from the junior regional guys in the name of getting a spot on the existing ML seniority list.
The senior guys have already shown that they are willing to give up a lot simply to keep their job and senior position on the list. As seen in the BK era. Their battle cry was take my pension but for the love of god let me keep my job.
So instead of the new pilots flying for $15/hour, a safety issue brought to light by Colgan BUF, the senior guys can subsidize it with their double dip on seniority. Besides they snubbed the RJs for Big Jets anyway... they sold off on scope... they can by it back.
Wishful thinking here, I'm afraid. No 'senior' guy in his right mind would buy anything back. That's not the way it works, nor should it. This is the same flawed logic that defends existing low RJ pay from the standpoint of "...if the regional guys wouldn't accept the job at those low rates, the rates would come up...": circular, and illogical logic.
As painful as it is for me to say this, $19.02, or $15, or even $10 an hour by itself isn't what caused Colgan, or, the industry as a whole to be where it is today. As long as the top Bigfoot, Whale, or 'Bus rates are at the end of the tunnel, there will be plenty of demand for the bottom of the lists. With the military slowly spooling down human flight training, it will be the civilian route to the airlines for more and more prospective pilots. The civilian route to the airlines does not start on a mainline list, as it exists now. Most civilians starting the airline career would see it in their best interests to change this model.
Why? because the senior guys need FOs to make the big Captain bucks. You want an FO who lives on Ramen? Such a disparity would be very divisive. Haves and have nots on the flight deck is bad.
Sure, it's bad for Morale, but inclusiveness and intrinsic or extrinsic rewards for the flying career are not goals of business management. What your or I want, as one single airline pilot pursuing this career, is completely irrelevant. (FWIW, however, we already have those who have and those who have not on the flight deck. The top guys at my regional make six figures, while the bottom, new hire FOs, make five figures with the first digit being a '2'.) Can you quantify 'bad' in this context? It can't be done in a way that impacts the financial statements of the airline industry.
Sorry. You can't simply wipe out up to 50% of the experienced pilots who provide the domestic lift. They all get jobs at ML except for the ones with legal issues.
