Lear70 said:
There's quite a few people who will disagree with you on this, so I wouldn't necessarily say "that's the way it is", more like "That's my opinion".
Fair enough, it is my opinion. I have some more opinions about what you said as well.
In fact, there WERE many first year Captains at PCL as well as other regionals and there will be again. By this year's end we will have about 1,200 pilots on property, not necessarily CMR size, but one of the mid-size regionals. Our 1st year CA pay is only $52 and it never gets CLOSE to where those guys are at U if you consistently compare year-by-year compensation.
If you in fact have 1st year captains, and I believe you since you said so, that is an aberration. It's not normal. Your 1st yr captain pay of $52 is nothing to be proud of, but you will now be lucky if you can keep it. That's for what size airplane? Do you have different rates for 44-seats and 50 seats? Regardless, this rate at U is for a 78-86 seat airplane. If NWA has to lower its DC9-10 rates to compete with this new rate at U, what do you think they will be willing to pay your company to fly those RJs?
Do you have any captains with more than 1 yr. of service? How about we lower your rates so that you highest paid captain makes less that USAir's/MDA highest paid captain? What do you think that will do to your present 1st year rate? You don't think that can happen? Just watch.
I think your focusing on the trees and missing the entire forest.
The next question is whether they have trip and duty rigs? Minimum day? Maximum flight/duty times? If they have a good combination of those, it actually becomes a fairly decent and livable job, and they can actually expect a 10% increase in their base pay because of those rigs, but with your experience, I know you already know that.
What my experience tells me is that you are not familiar with the Eagle contract. The USA pilots have agreed to work under the EGL contract. That happens to be one of the worst regional contracts, it contains no rigs, has lousy work rules, poor benefits, and can only be amended by arbitration. I recommend that you read it.
If we could match those pay rates U just signed (a nearly 15% pay raise for CA's, 40% for F/O's) AND get a minimum daily value around 5 hours, look-back trip and duty rigs, and strengthen our reserve rules, we'd be done negotiating this round of contract talks we start in November. And again, we're middle of the pack as far as compensation goes right now - that would put us one step below CMR and above everyone else in the industry.
I really hate to say this but I think you have a very limited understanding of collective bargaining. Now that this has been signed at U, the best thing you could do in November is try to extend your current contract without change. If you really believe you're going to "raise" your rates and introduce rigs in the face of this, you are a true dreamer.
You don't have to worry about being one step below Comair. Thanks to this BS it will take a literally miracle for us to avoid concessions now. What we will have left when its over is anybody's guess. I wish I could dream like you do but the "experience" you mentioned earlier makes me a realist.
I'm not saying what they did was right, but I AM saying that it's not the end of the world, nor lowering the bar dramatically. My dad is less than 3 years from mandatory at mainline and I'm NOT happy that those rates encompass much larger equipment and I DO fear that U will sign scope concessions that allow them to replace MUCH more mainline flying with those larger jets, but given the spot that U is in, I fear that is the next announcement we'll see.
Maybe it's not the end of the word, but when you tell me that another airline has agreed to fly equipment with as many as
16 more seats than my airplane can carry
for pay rates as much as $55/ hr less is not "lowering the bar dramatically" about all I can say is you don't have a clue as to what you're talking about.
As for what "mainline flying" will be replaced the answer is most of the narrow body flying.
The UMEC has already voted to enter into further scope relief negotiations. I don't know what leverage it is you think they have left to prevent the company from doing what it wants to do, but we shall see. Truth is that considering the pay they have agreed to at MDA, they would be better off to give all those airplanes to subcontractors and follow the J4J route. That way the "regionals" they go to might be able to negotiate higher pay for them, since they can't do it themselves. Instead, they have decided to drag everybody to the bottom of the barrel.
I don't know which "mainline" your dad is at but if it is USAir then read what I wrote to Bud330. You'll probably figure out that I have no interest in protecting his last three years at the expense of my family. Since they obviously don't care what their actions will do to us, why should we care what happens to them?
