spongebob
Glass half empty
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Posts
- 61
I do not spend too much time recently on this message board, primarily because 75 percent of all posts are the same 3 or 4 old dogs rehashing why RJs are great and the RJDC is going to win. Then those posts degenerate into a your Momas ugly and my Dad can whup your Dad.
I have read some of the previous posts by Surplus and his buddies on the significance of the RJDC and its suit and I have to agree that ALPA is too small a place for both pilot groups. The union does NOT represent its regional pilots well in issues that relate to scope.
But please, if you are a regional pilot and you love the job and never wish to join a "mainline" carrier, then please create a new union that will represent you against management and ALPA. The concept that ALPA can give all its members the best representation at all time is flawed. It is NOT TRUE.
Even though I am still paying for my MBA years later, I can tell you that from a management and marketing point of view, RJs can mean profits, but so can large jets, widebodies, small turbo-props and even supersonic transports. The right mix is an ever changing solution that is optimized by factors that are controlled by management. With that said, the goals of management and labor are slightly different. As management, the ultimate goal is value and income to the shareholder and although that leads to good things for labor, our goal is pay, benefits and work-rules. Mngmt loves RJ pilots because they pay you peanuts, costs go down and profits go up.
As a mainline pilot, I want my company to make money, but not at my expense. I want them to be solvent enough to pay me well, pay my retirement and give me security. That means I want them to buy more big planes, fly longer routes and GROW. RJs do little more that provide feed. If a 767 can fly a thin route and lose money, I am happy as long as a 777 flys to Europe and makes a hefty margin. Helping the company by moving that 767 route to a smaller plane (as in an RJ), does not help me even if it can put another million in the CEOs pocket.
The RJDC wants things that are detrimental to my career. I hope regional pilots bow out of ALPA and start (or join) a union that best represents them, even on issues that are detrimental to mainline labor. It is the least you can ask from your union.
But let us not mince words, your desires and actions are detrimental to my career goals. You are taking the profession in a low-paid, high work direction, and that is dangerous to me. I hope you do not drag the companies who own you back to the days when your pay-for-training regionals were a norm (think early 90s!) by working for peanuts on 18 hour rigs.
The best thing mngmt can do for me and my fellow pilots at mainline is to jettison the regionals. It should be your dream, that way we can no longer hamper your careers.
I do not believe the egalitarian BS you have spread about there being "enough fish in the ocean for all of us". I do not take it brotherly when more and more of my flying is going to operators of smaller planes at regional carriers.
Well this is the end to my venting. I will leave you, hopefully to a job. I just wish somebody would pay me well to fly gliders and I would not even bother with this MB.
I have read some of the previous posts by Surplus and his buddies on the significance of the RJDC and its suit and I have to agree that ALPA is too small a place for both pilot groups. The union does NOT represent its regional pilots well in issues that relate to scope.
But please, if you are a regional pilot and you love the job and never wish to join a "mainline" carrier, then please create a new union that will represent you against management and ALPA. The concept that ALPA can give all its members the best representation at all time is flawed. It is NOT TRUE.
Even though I am still paying for my MBA years later, I can tell you that from a management and marketing point of view, RJs can mean profits, but so can large jets, widebodies, small turbo-props and even supersonic transports. The right mix is an ever changing solution that is optimized by factors that are controlled by management. With that said, the goals of management and labor are slightly different. As management, the ultimate goal is value and income to the shareholder and although that leads to good things for labor, our goal is pay, benefits and work-rules. Mngmt loves RJ pilots because they pay you peanuts, costs go down and profits go up.
As a mainline pilot, I want my company to make money, but not at my expense. I want them to be solvent enough to pay me well, pay my retirement and give me security. That means I want them to buy more big planes, fly longer routes and GROW. RJs do little more that provide feed. If a 767 can fly a thin route and lose money, I am happy as long as a 777 flys to Europe and makes a hefty margin. Helping the company by moving that 767 route to a smaller plane (as in an RJ), does not help me even if it can put another million in the CEOs pocket.
The RJDC wants things that are detrimental to my career. I hope regional pilots bow out of ALPA and start (or join) a union that best represents them, even on issues that are detrimental to mainline labor. It is the least you can ask from your union.
But let us not mince words, your desires and actions are detrimental to my career goals. You are taking the profession in a low-paid, high work direction, and that is dangerous to me. I hope you do not drag the companies who own you back to the days when your pay-for-training regionals were a norm (think early 90s!) by working for peanuts on 18 hour rigs.
The best thing mngmt can do for me and my fellow pilots at mainline is to jettison the regionals. It should be your dream, that way we can no longer hamper your careers.
I do not believe the egalitarian BS you have spread about there being "enough fish in the ocean for all of us". I do not take it brotherly when more and more of my flying is going to operators of smaller planes at regional carriers.
Well this is the end to my venting. I will leave you, hopefully to a job. I just wish somebody would pay me well to fly gliders and I would not even bother with this MB.