pilots earned twice what they were pre 89, but they worked more than twice as hard for that reward
A little bit of fiction there,
Wizofoz.
Until PILOTS write their OWN rosters, they have no control over how hard they work - scheduling does that for us.
Pre '89, overtime started at 65 hours - in other words, the employer could fly the pilot up to 65 hours per month, and still pay him only half the salary of the post '89 pilots.
Post '89, overtime started at 55 hours ($1200 being the guaranteed MINIMUM extra, paid for a callout).
I'd be interested to hear your economic rationalisation of WHY 4 quite finanacially healthy airlines pre-Dispute, now cease to exist.
The companies decided to play hard ball, believing that the pilots would be back at work within 2 weeks.
They were nowhere NEAR fully operational again until January 1990, and completely without revenue of any substance, for almost 3 months.
The aim was to bust the collective bargaining power of the pilots, to be able to put them on INDIVIDUAL contracts, and then tear down their conditions, by initially pitting pilot against pilot, using $$$`s as the carrot.
Were they successful?