PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The American Dream; The Europeans can dream!
Old 24th Mar 2023, 06:17
  #46 (permalink)  
cactusbusdrvr
 
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Originally Posted by SunSmith
The problem in the UK is that the Unions are self-inflicted weak. BALPA, within BA in particular, likes to "get around the table" as if they are management consultants. We only every hear excuses and arguments as to why pilots in the UK are not worth the same as US counterparts. Excuses such as US furlough, chapter 11.... all missing the blatantly obvious point that like-for-like carriers have overall better long term earnings, standards of living and retirement prospects. Ask BALPA for evidence of their arguments and they can't show any.....

Within BA, the main issue is that BALPA reps are too afraid of their own shadows to tell pilots to respect each other and BLRs. They allow people to "work for free", encourage people to volunteer for jobs (flying and none flying) with the excuse that "pilots don't like to be told what to do"...... undermining agreements to such an extent that BA ops/management go out of their way to "forget" rules that attract overtime payments etc....

I know/heard of a few chaps on SH who stick to their principles and try to ensure their co-pilots are treated fairly. One chap got his co the 1.25 NCP that he was owed).....when BALPA told the FO "it's too late".....

until the pilots and their union grow a pair, things won't change..... even today OPS are asking for volunteers to cover work at single rate.....

I have never understood the weak dick mentality of pilot unions in Europe. Lord knows, every other workforce is ready to burn the place down (cough, cough, France).

You want to know why pilot salaries are high in the US? Pilot unions and seniority lists. Every airline has both. Being locked into a list means you will do what it takes to improve your wage and benefits. And since we are now 40 years into the post deregulation environment there are many opportunities for pilots to choose a job so that forces carriers to offer attractive packages to entice new hires. Los Estados Unitas is a big country with crappy public funded transport, particularly inter city. So aviation is a staple. Passengers, cargo, everyone wants to be there or get their package deliveries right now. So aviation flourishes.

Another thing to consider is that aviation terms and conditions are only now starting to recover to the pre 9/11 terms. Airline management took advantage of the terror attacks on 9/11 to destroy pilot contracts. They were able to do this until the basic economic principle of supply and demand caught up with the lack of pilot starts driven by those ridiculous starting salaries for regional pilots. Now they are playing catch up. And they are paying to play. FUPM.

The reality is that the passenger has been taking advantage of low fares that can easily absorb an elasticity in price. $99 fares across the country are not good for anyone except the great unwashed who are **** to have as passengers anyway. Post Covid flying a bunch of domestic flights I had more unruly passengers requiring police meeting the flight than in my previous 38 years of airline flying. Thankfully international opened back up and the issues were left to the guys flying domestic. Business travelers will pay the fares, and it’s just a small part of the operating cost of a flight even if both cockpit crew are making $555/hr. I pissed that much away if I held 10 minutes going into LHR.
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