Citing a couple of examples is like saying I saw it rain under one cloud so it must be raining under them all. The example I cited groups it all together with 40 years of data. Comparing how SkyWest should run a union with how ASA and Comair ran/run a union does not describe the entire industry. Labor economics is much more complicated than just pulling out a few points and calling that justification. Neither ASA or Comair have a very mature contract with a union, but I definitely respect the Comair pilot group for sticking to their guns. One problem is the regionals can be played against one another as majors create a bidding war. Another is that because the regional level is the entry level job source for a 121 career, you get guys who have not been to the rodeo yet, and are willing to sell their first born to fly a jet.
It's going to take a lot more than a few FI threads to solve the problem. It's going to take the MEC from several regionals to develop a strategy to minimize the damage union busting companies like Ford & Harrison use to manage expectations of pilot groups.
And AGAIN. I'm not advocating ALPA. An in-house union would work fine. You can still subscribe to many of the tools from ALPA while running an in-house union. Either way, the union is only as good as it's members and leaders. The National side isn't going to magically give you some special negotiating power. Talk to the NetJets guys who were under Teamsters IBT 1108, but dropped them in favor of an in-house union. They seem pretty happy with their union, and it isn't ALPA. They went from $28k captain pay (non-union) to $150k+ captain pay in just a few contracts, and it wasn't because the company wanted to be nice and give everyone a raise. And guess what, all the non-union shops had to follow suit. Which 121 airline has the highest pay.... it isn't a non-union shop, and it never has been.
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