The most expensive magazine turns alarmist....

[BoilerUP]

Minimaniac posted: So I am part of the problem because ALPA chose to NOT represent my company because we were too small?

Umm no...I doubt that was the case with your airline. Which was what again?

It was Chautauqua, round abouts 10 years ago when they flew J32s and Saabs.

ALPA doesn't chose a pilot group...a pilot group choses ALPA.

You can choose ALPA all you want, but if they don't want to represent you then its kinda moot, ain't it?

 

[michael707767]

You can choose ALPA all you want, but if they don't want to represent you then its kinda moot, ain't it?

Short and sweet and sums it up perfectly.

 

[pilotyip]

How come?

The jones act covers waterways domestically... I am speaking globally...

Of the thousands of ships in the maritime industry less than 90 are American and most of those are controlled by the govt to move the MIL. There is hardly any commerical US operations.

Most of the crews in the global maritime industry are filipino... http://www.eurunion.org/eu/index.php?

How come this happened, I thought the Maritime Union was one of the strongest unions out there? Could it be they added so much cost that they could not compete in a worldwide free market?

 

[Captain Morgan]

I have flown a few trips with a captain who was a mercant mariner. He has told me about how the US has very few if any flag ships anymore. He was telling me how crews from other countries will work for next to nothing and be gone from their families and homes for months if not years. It's rediculous. They just basically sacrifice their life for work, which if you think you have it bad here, it can be a whole lot worse. This is what we are in competition with if and when globalization progresses further. It's really sad. Between technology and globalization, there are not going to be few jobs anywhere. Those of you who are in the know, what can I do as Joe Shmoe to protect ourselves? We are not ALPA but this issue shouldn't be an ALPA only one.

 

[maru657]

Union Labor.

There will always be non-union airlines, much as there has been non-union auto makers. When unions add cost to a union company, the company looses its ability to compete with the non-union companies. UAW membership 1978 close to 1M, 2009 less than 300K

Non-Union auto makers? Which ones? I'll name a couple of union auto makers with strong unions. Honda, VW, Toyota, etc.
In regard to the U.S. Merchant Marine fleet, Flags of Convenience was an operational choice started prior to the U.S.'s involvement in WWII in order to allow cargo's to be shipped to allies already involved in the War. It had nothing to do with union labor.

 

[jmreii]

I have flown a few trips with a captain who was a mercant mariner. He has told me about how the US has very few if any flag ships anymore. He was telling me how crews from other countries will work for next to nothing and be gone from their families and homes for months if not years. It's rediculous. They just basically sacrifice their life for work, which if you think you have it bad here, it can be a whole lot worse. This is what we are in competition with if and when globalization progresses further. It's really sad. Between technology and globalization, there are not going to be few jobs anywhere. Those of you who are in the know, what can I do as Joe Shmoe to protect ourselves? We are not ALPA but this issue shouldn't be an ALPA only one.

Globalization will progress whether the US wants it to or not, the only other choice is to be left behind. I can see that plan working good. If an international company purchases your company, it is usually their way or the highway.

 

[pilotyip]

Not an expert

Non-Union auto makers? Which ones? I'll name a couple of union auto makers with strong unions. Honda, VW, Toyota, etc.
In regard to the U.S. Merchant Marine fleet, Flags of Convenience was an operational choice started prior to the U.S.'s involvement in WWII in order to allow cargo's to be shipped to allies already involved in the War. It had nothing to do with union labor.

Most of the transplant auto makers in this country are non-union from what I know. I good friend of mine works at Toyota in Prineton, IN and know they are non-union. If I am wrong please provide the info showing which ones are union. US Auto maker managments failure to standup to excessive union demands eventually put them into such a non-competetive situation that the tranplants had a $2,500 per advantage cost. Here is how the UAW used to do it; they reach a deal with a single company, then go to the next company and say match it or you will be shutdown and all the new cars being sold will be built someplace else, then they go to the next company and repeat. When the auto companies where rolling in money it was a good deal for all. This brings me to the relationship between Detroit management and the UAW. It is likely that if no Japanese or European manufacturers had built plants in the U.S.—in other words if imports were still really imports—the Detroit carmakers would not be in their current straits, although we as consumers would probably be paying more for cars and have fewer choices than we do. The fact is that the Detroit Three's post-World War II business strategies were doomed from the day in 1982 when the first Honda Accord rolled off a non-union assembly line in Ohio. After that it soon became clear that the Japanese automakers—and others—could build cars in the U.S. with relatively young, non-union labor forces that quickly learned how to thrive in the efficient production systems those companies operated.
Being new has enormous advantages in a capital-intensive, technology-intensive business like automaking. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and later BMW, Mercedes, and Hyundai, had new factories, often subsidized by the host state, that were designed to use the latest manufacturing processes and technology. And they had new work forces. This was an advantage not because they paid them less per hour—generally non-union autoworkers receive about what UAW men and women earn in GM assembly plants—but because the new, non-union companies didn't have to bear additional costs for health care and pensions for hundreds of thousands of retirees.
Moreover, the new American manufacturers didn't have to compensate workers for the change from the old mass production methods to the new lean production approach. GM did—which is why GM created the Jobs Bank. The idea was that if UAW workers believed they wouldn't be fired if GM got more efficient, then they might embrace the new methods. Of course, we know how that turned out. The Jobs Bank became little more than a welfare system for people who had nothing more to contribute because GM's dropping market share had made their jobs superfluous.
Health care is a similar story. GM's leaders—and the UAW's—knew by the early 1990s that the combination of rising health care costs and the longevity of GM's retired workers threatened the company. But GM management backed away from a confrontation with the UAW over health care in 1993 due ot fear of a shudown, and in every national contract cycle afterwards until 2005—when the company's nearness to collapse finally became clear to everyone.In testimony before Congress this December, GM's CEO Rick Wagoner said that GM has spent $103 billion during the past 15 years funding its pension and retiree health-care obligations. That is nearly $7 billion a year—more than GM's capital spending budget for new models this year. Why wasn't Rick Wagoner making this point in 1998, or 1999, or even 2003? But over the last 30 years it has eliminated 70% of the union jobs, gave great raise to non-union companies, and now it is concession time. Now the Airlines could follow the same path as the UAW and it would be great for 30% of those who still had jobs. This is also great for the non-ALPA airlines that would fly all the passengers when the ALPA pilots were on strike.

 

[pilotyip]

Nice touch of reality.

Globalization will progress whether the US wants it to or not, the only other choice is to be left behind. I can see that plan working good. If an international company purchases your company, it is usually their way or the highway.

Thank you for the connection to global reality. You either compete globally or you become obsolete.

 

[BoilerUP]

Toyota plants at both Princeton, IN and Georgetown, KY are non-union.

Some if not all Toyota plants in Japan are unionized though...

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

I have flown a few trips with a captain who was a mercant mariner. He has told me about how the US has very few if any flag ships anymore. He was telling me how crews from other countries will work for next to nothing and be gone from their families and homes for months if not years. It's rediculous. They just basically sacrifice their life for work, which if you think you have it bad here, it can be a whole lot worse. This is what we are in competition with if and when globalization progresses further. It's really sad. Between technology and globalization, there are not going to be few jobs anywhere. Those of you who are in the know, what can I do as Joe Shmoe to protect ourselves? We are not ALPA but this issue shouldn't be an ALPA only one.

The big picture is the fact that we are all consumers in a global economy. We neglect citizenship and spend a majority of our time functioning as consumers.

Pilots will get on this board, regardless of political affilitation (meaning the radical free market neo cons) and call for 'socialist' changes to the pilot career... looking for job protections and market barriers... all while they have another window open on thier laptop purchasing goods from the global market place..

We can't have it both ways.

Until we as a collective culture start functioning as citizens and less as consumers, the global market place will dictate how CEO's, heads of states and shoppers spend their time.