Lolikoka
Counsel for the Oppressed
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2004
- Posts
- 127
Comments
crjskipper - I'm not trying to "show" Jerry - I'm trying to take out every dime I can from this company before it folds. Jerry does not care about me or my family, and I don't care about his company. I will treat the passengers well and do my job as it is outlined in the contract and the POH, and I will try to make as much money as I can every month.
Joe - you are right that we as a national union have failed to hold up wages in our end of the industry. But - the regional airline model is premised on exploitation of its employees, and the airlines apparently have no plans to do anything else except exploit their employees for as long as possible. I don't see any individual pilot group in the regional end of this industry being able to stop that - collective action across companies appears to be the only chance and it's illegal. I just don't know that pattern bargaining will work in this end of the industry before I retire in 18 years. How would you try to uphold wages? A $2/hour raise in only $150 to 160 dollars a month - that's chump change to the amount of money our company pi$$es away every month, whether it's ASA money or Delta money.
The rising health care costs just sent me over the edge. Unless their abilty to screw us is capped by new language in our contract, the company can nulify any pay raise we get and turn our annual longevity raise into a loss of relative pay if they want, simply by changing our health care premiums. I know health care costs are rising - there is a profit-making company called United HealthCare in the middle, and there are profit-making insurance companies raising doctors' premiums on the other end. This industry is going to turn me into a communist!
Loyalty is a two-way street; if the company management only cares about the absentee landlords in Utah, then I certainly don't care about the company.
crjskipper - I'm not trying to "show" Jerry - I'm trying to take out every dime I can from this company before it folds. Jerry does not care about me or my family, and I don't care about his company. I will treat the passengers well and do my job as it is outlined in the contract and the POH, and I will try to make as much money as I can every month.
Joe - you are right that we as a national union have failed to hold up wages in our end of the industry. But - the regional airline model is premised on exploitation of its employees, and the airlines apparently have no plans to do anything else except exploit their employees for as long as possible. I don't see any individual pilot group in the regional end of this industry being able to stop that - collective action across companies appears to be the only chance and it's illegal. I just don't know that pattern bargaining will work in this end of the industry before I retire in 18 years. How would you try to uphold wages? A $2/hour raise in only $150 to 160 dollars a month - that's chump change to the amount of money our company pi$$es away every month, whether it's ASA money or Delta money.
The rising health care costs just sent me over the edge. Unless their abilty to screw us is capped by new language in our contract, the company can nulify any pay raise we get and turn our annual longevity raise into a loss of relative pay if they want, simply by changing our health care premiums. I know health care costs are rising - there is a profit-making company called United HealthCare in the middle, and there are profit-making insurance companies raising doctors' premiums on the other end. This industry is going to turn me into a communist!
Loyalty is a two-way street; if the company management only cares about the absentee landlords in Utah, then I certainly don't care about the company.
