YakYak is spot on. The insane pay levels awarded to pilots at UAL, AA and Delta have contributed greatly to their current economic situation - leaving aside 9/11, anyone with the slightest abount of intelligence could see that we were entering a recession. So what do the unions do? Demand 30-40% pay increases!
Such brilliance. Such intelligence. Such forward thinking!
As a result, Delta's bottom line costs have been loaded by more than
half a billion dollars a year. That's more than the
cumulative profits it made in the past decade!
Any union dinosaurs that think that they can strike and demand ever increasing pay for ever reducing amounts of work will need to think again because those days are
over, my friends!
Pilots hold themselves out as professionals but the reality is that without the unions they would be earning a fraction of what they are. Their actions - through the use of militant unions - are far from professional.
The reality of piloting in the 21st century will include:
1) No scope agreements.
2) No seniority system.
3) Higher productivity.
4) More realistic (ie much lower) salaries for the higher earners.
A captain cannot justify a higher salary than a senior manager; and a first officer cannot justify a higher salary than a junior manager. That's economic life - wake up and smell that java, people!!
