BM
I will speak in generalities and anyone tell me if this applies to you and your airline.
Imagine that your union in negotiating a contract with your airline management for higher wages and better working conditions.
During this process, management creates another company and hires NON-UNION (low wage) pilots.
Now imagine that these “non-union” , pilots are assigned to fly your routes with your equipment or assigned to fly with you as your FO, or Captain or Flight Engineer.
This would be equal to United airlines hiring non-union (low wage) pilots to "save" money and flying them side by side with the "high wage" greedy union pilots.
I ask anyone to explain to BM why the people who dreamed up this horrible tactic, will do everything in their power against you and the union. Very similar things are going on at the other majors too but in a differnt way (RJ's...).
I think that you can best understand why things are this way is that airline management see aircrew as the enemy. Think about it. When you negotiate a contract, you are NOT sitting down as friends and happily finding ways to make the best of things for both sides. You do battle with lawyers. You fight, argue, issue dis-information, maneuver behind the scenes, create unrest and confusion, stall, cry poverty, put one group against the other, divide and conquer, create diversions, take advantage of any world event that suites your purpose……..
You mentioned SW and JB. Yes, they do NOT see their employees as the enemy and look at how they are doing? They are thinking “outside the box” and look at their success!
Bottom line BM, I hope you get the answer you want. I know I sound pessimistic, but we on this BB have seen this sort of thing for decades. What you are pleading for is management to change their basic personalities and the way they view themselves and the world. Not an impossible thing, but you tell me, how many times have you seen a person totally change for the better? You would think that 911 would have changed everybody for the better, and maybe for a short time it did, but we will find out very soon just how profound and permanent those changes were.
[ 22 October 2001: Message edited by: Move_It ]