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Ineresting Propposal From USA WO's

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DASHDRIVER

Uber User
Joined
Dec 9, 2001
Posts
265
Today a copy of a new proposal drafted by the USAirways WO commuters was released on the ALPA site. The offer is proposing a restart of the failed MeroJet. The WO's are offering a way to bring the 737's and the F100's out of the desert and fly them on Regional Salaries and rules. The offer states the furloughed mailine pilots would be brought on to fly the Jets and the prit pro quo is that the WO's get some of the RJ's.

I guess this makes sense. Mang gets a way to compete in the discount market. Mainline get their jobs, even better they fly their 73's instead of RJ's. The WO's get their RJ's. Everyone is happy. Now I know this brings up a few problems but in a situation where noone is currently winning its better than nothing. What does everyone else think about this?
 
Weren't the 737-2 and F100's parked because of their enourmous operating expense? Granted, 9/11 sped the process up, but were they not on their way out long before??
 
I like creative thinking. Thinking of ways for both sides to win is always good. A proposal is just that, and it provides an opportunity for both sides to keep talking until something can be agreed upon.
 
Now the only thing left in the equasion is were the money will come from to fund those RJ's. That is the whole reason US had to go off property to get more RJ's because no one will finance them with US directly.
 
wow

That's great.

737's at regional pay rates.

This profession is in a lot of trouble.


Now there is a revelation!
 
If that's what it takes to restore life to a dying airline then so be it. We can't forget that whatever we get paid, it's truly never about how much a pilot is worth, it's about what the market will bear.
 
Rooster said:
We can't forget that whatever we get paid, it's truly never about how much a pilot is worth, it's about what the market will bear.

It is not about what the market will bear, it is about what you can negotiate. Determining what the market will bear is darn near a practical impossibility. In the current and historic practices, executives have become masters of the corporate shell game, in which revenues and liabilites are upstreamed and downstreamed to such an extent that even a viable, profitable entity such as Eagle, or DCI can be spun to look like a cash-hemmoraging turd, thereby forcing concessions, or at least downward pressure on labor compensation.

Of course the mirror-image situation in also possible to dupe investors into lining the pockets of money-grubbing execs with golden parachutes, ala Enron.
 
So, it has nothing to do with what a passenger is willing to pay. Thanks for the education. Why is it that United couldn't make money with the shuttle operation? Southwest is making money. Same airplanes, different wages. This may be a little simplistic.
United just negotiated some significant increases in their last contract. The ability of the airline to pay it is obviously in question as they will be seeking wage consessions soon. They may be worth every penny, but the market rules.
 
Rooster said:
So, it has nothing to do with what a passenger is willing to pay. Thanks for the education. Why is it that United couldn't make money with the shuttle operation? Southwest is making money. Same airplanes, different wages. This may be a little simplistic.
United just negotiated some significant increases in their last contract. The ability of the airline to pay it is obviously in question as they will be seeking wage consessions soon. They may be worth every penny, but the market rules.

Rooster,

I never said that it has NOTHING to do with what the market will bear, I said that determinig what the market will bear, in terms of labor compensation, is difficult, at best, given the prowess of mgt at their infamous shell-game antics.

As far as ticket price, the market has a tremendous influence. However, labor compensation and ticket prices are two different things.

With reference to the SWA vs. United issue, that is comparing apples and oranges. "Same airplanes, different wages..." not quite. One type of a/c United operates is the same as SWA. Therein lies an inherent difference. SWA has a completely different business model and resultant cost structure. SWA has ONE fleet type. I would hazard a guess that the lower cost of spare parts, crew training, ground equipment etc., etc., etc., contribute signifigantly more to the financial success of SWA than the disparity in pilot compensation.

As for United's short-lived industry leading contract, I dare say that United was already posting record losses at the time that contract was signed. The financial state of all the airlines was starting down the slippery slope long before 9/11. Following that logic, the United pilots gained their phenominal payrates at a time when the airline was in less than stellar financial shape. IMHO, it lends some credence to the argument that labor compensation has less to do with the market support than does a unions ability to negotiate the contract provisions (compensation, benefits, and work rules) they are seeking. Poor financial performance is just a convienient excuse to ask for concessions from the juicy target of pilot compensation.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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