Scab Stories

[100LL... Again!]

I think the unions are a very necessary evil, for the reasons stated.

That said, I think that too much emphasis has been placed in the wrong areas, and that the so-called brotherhood is a fairly tale.

It probably does not matter to you why I think that, but my personal experiences certainly provide me with enough reasons to question whether the union has evolved into something new that is a whole different animal than it used to be.

I do not support scabbing, nor would I ever do so. How I would treat a scab would depend a lot on the circumstances.

In one extreme case, if some guy did it because he had a child who couln't make it without the health insurance or his paycheck, I would understand. Heck, I might even scab at my own airline if I had a seriously sick child and I could not otherwise afford care. I could certainly live with a bunch of pi$$ed of coworkers before I could live with the alternative.

Of course we all know that the reason most people scab is much more selfish. Thay want quick advancement at the expense of others. This is inexcusable in my opinion. If everyone ignores them at work, then so be it.

However, many people want to raise the level of verbal attack to uncivilised levels. It is one thing to smack each other around on a message board. It is another to call someone a POS to their face. And worse to damage their property. (We all know these things happen).

If I flew with someone who was a greedy scab, I would probably limit conversation somewhat. From a safety standpoint, it is not conducive to have the CRM in this state, however.

If there were extraneous circumstances, then I probably would let bygones be bygones.

I guess I've taken so many financial beatings and setbacks in this business that I really have a fatalistic attitude toward job security. Therefore, it just ain't worth getting that fired up over.

Mostly, though, I think it is my free-market mindset. If a half-dozen people scab, it won't really help the company that much anyway. If lots of them scab, then we did not do a very good job of unifying the group (I am speaking of same-airline scabbing, of course, for those who are new-hire scabs, there is no excuse).

It's a free market of ideas, and we all roll the dice.

 

[Everett Howe]

Quit running down an organization that has spent blood sweat and tears and improving your profession.

So why did they stop?

 

[banned username 1]

I believe the quick and dirty answer to your question is that they haven't, but now the institutions who might be perceived as their adversaries have networked with others- i.e. government, politicians, big business which has a financial stake in outcomes of the industry, etc. There is a ton more of "interconnectedness" with various constituencies having interests than there ever was before.

Let's not forget the mindset of the population in general and pilots in particular either. Exhibit A would be the variety and number of posts on this forum decrying unions ALPA in particular.
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On another subject of what would 100LL do, it might interest you to know that in very rare cases where a pilot had a sick member of their family who absolutely needed the medical benefit to remain uninterrupted, those people, generally were told to go to work and would have "dispensation", so to speak. All they had to do was to communicate the need. The problem with striking now is that people view issues in "shades of gray". Everybody is a relativist. Is there nothing that's truly right or wrong anymore? This trait does not bode well for any issue that our society must face today. I truly worry about us. But I digress...

Of course, virtually every scab had a sob story- like nobody else had a problem in the world, right? FWIW, I had more respect (if that's possible) for the rare scab who said: hey, I did what I wanted to do or did what I thought was right. Those guys were scarce as hen's teeth.

Take it from me, once you get a group of people who have scabbed and you get to observe them, when looked at objectively, the majority have traits of being naiive almost to the point of childishness. It was interesting to see- and sad at the same time.

 

[Tram]

UAL78 - This is off topic - but.. is that your 8 in your avatar? We've got a 6..

 

[banned username 1]

yes it is

 

[Tram]

Nice looking bird..

 

[PCL_128]

I'm sure the great god of ALPA (PCL128) will be along any minute to pontificate and lecture on how this man got his just deserts.

Hardly. I don't wish illness or death on anyone, not even a SCAB. I'm certainly in favor of denying jumpseats and shunning SCABs while at work, but "thuggery" is certainly unacceptable. Slashing tires, beatings, vandalism, etc... are all things that are completely unacceptable. If that is what you mean by "thuggery," then no, I don't advocate that.

I've known many SCABs in my short time in this career. Many of them worked at Gulfstream and we have a couple at Pinnacle also. Some of them were very nice guys, and some of them were complete jerks. In the end though, they all crossed a line and stabbed their fellow pilots in the back. They knew what they did was wrong, and yet they did it anyway. They ruined families and great airlines. The fact that it happened many years ago doesn't change the fact that it did happen. We shouldn't just forget it because it happened so long ago.

As for your mocking of ALPA and unions in general, as GogglesPisano said, I'm sure you'd change your tune if you were about to lose your job and you needed the help of that "useless" union. No matter how much some of you attack ALPA, ALPA is always there to help you out of the jams you get yourselves into. That measly 1.95% of your pay goes quite a long way. Aeromedical, legal, safety, scheduling, hotel, communications, etc... are all provided by that little 1.95%. All of us would be working 26 days a month for minimum wage if it wasn't for the hard work of ALPA for the past 75 years. Most of the safety improvements in the industry for the last 75 years are a direct result of ALPA's leadership role in safety. ALPA may not be perfect, but it does the job it's supposed to do. Mistakes are sometimes made, but that's to be expected. No organization is perfect, no matter how hard it tries.

 

[EngineThunder]

As a corporate pilot with no airline experience, How much interaction is there when paired on a three or four day trip with a Scab?

 

[Tram]

Well atleast I'm not alone in my opinion..

 

[banned username 1]

Engine Thunder-

You would be amazed at how little interaction there is with a scab on a 4 day trip. We've all had lots of experience at it at UAL. We go to work, meet them in dispatch, don't shake their hand, review the flight papers, and see each other again at the plane. Only flying and safety-related issues are discussed. It gets pretty quiet during cruise.

It's funny when a scab would meet a new guy or someone who didn't know that he was a scab. Their faces would light up and they'd start talking a mile a minute- until the person finally realized that they were a scab.

Oh, I just remembered a funny story for this thread!

Once, a couple of years after our strike, I was jumpseating to go to work. There was someone on the scab list (we all carried them at that time) who had the same last name as mine. As I showed the captain my ID and introduced myself to him, he looked over at the first officer and said my last name to him with a huh? after it. For purposes of clarity, we'll use the name Smith here. So he said, "Smith, huh?" to which I shot back- "oh no, I'm not that fxxxxxxx scab, that's somebody else, I'd like to meet that bxxxxxxxxx someday and tell him he's a disgrace to the Smith name". At that point, a big grin came over both of their faces and the captain slowly turned around with perfect timing and pointed his finger at the second officer who was sitting there with a somewhat sheepish and ashamed look on his face. The captain said "I believe you just did!" It was priceless. That second officer never said a word. It was GREAT!

UAL78

 

[EOpilot]

I thought the UAL scabs were given super-seniority. What was he doing sitting sideways?

 

[johnny taliban]

UAL78,
nice story

 

[banned username 1]

Super seniority

Yeah- that was a great psychological ploy and they all did (no, there were a few people who chose not to participate) re-bid themselves all into 747 Capts, etc. When we came back, it didn't take a judge long to invalidate that little excursion into labor relations. He was back where he should have been.

 

[geojet707]

Amen Tram!!

Amen Tram!!!

To refresh a few memories, Eastern did not increase activity in IAH during the CAL strike in any signifigant amount. Eastern did build a hub there well after CAL had returned to flying only to have Frank Lorenzo destroy it in his garage sale at Eastern. CAL owes a good amount of its growth in IAH to the destruction of Eastern by Frank Lorenzo.

 

[Boeingman]

To refresh a few memories, Eastern did not increase activity in IAH during the CAL strike in any signifigant amount.

Now that is odd. I mean I was there living through the actual strike and tracking this very type of thing in the strike center in IAH. Now just what were you doing during this time in your aviation career? Were you even out of Junior High yet? Elementary school? Are you living through events through a relative like Tram?

Eastern did build a hub there well after CAL had returned to flying only to have Frank Lorenzo destroy it in his garage sale at Eastern.

Better check six on your airline history pal. Eastern already had a hub there in IAH. It was closed long before Frank got his hands on Eastern.

CAL owes a good amount of its growth in IAH to the destruction of Eastern by Frank Lorenzo.

Is that right? Aside from some decrepit Airbus's that were sold to TAC thenleased to CAL at userous rates, Eastern assets did little to fuel the growth at IAH. Fact is IAH due to lack of gate space had little growth over that time frame. The exponential growth at IAH occured long after Eastern tanked.

Any other airline history you need correction on, let me know.