This situation seems to revolve thru the link carriers every couple of years. The usual beat of the 'pilots pay' drums, the inevitable threat of closing the company down, re-opening under a new name, or getting one of the other link carriers to cover those routes. When I worked for Air Nelson, the management let it be known that if we didn't come to the table wrt pay talks, then there was a strong likelyhood that Mt Cook (can't you taste the irony) would take over the routes operated by us using ATR's, and we would all be out of a job, or at best, we would have to re-apply to Mt Cook for our jobs back. Even a cursory glance would have shown the fallacy of those "plans", but it certainly had a lot of the senior guys running for cover, more interested in keeping what they had than losing it all......
I believe Eagle had the same threat hung over their head when the horsefloats were coming, being told that they would head over to Airwork of all places. Apart from a dubious legal position, imagine the public outcry if air services were withdrawn, or at best seriously disrupted, while the company cans 150 odd pilots for what?
I struggle to understand why airline, or any management for that matter, cannot seem to grasp the very real value of staff morale, loyalty and most of all goodwill. Its not such a difficult thing to foster, surely.
Hats off to the boys at Mt Cook, good on you guys for sticking up for yourselves, and the others that will follow you into the Chook, good luck to you all.
Nosey