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Originally Posted by skydog  So let me see if I've got this straight...if you go to work for Skybus (or JetBlue, or Virgin America) for less than industry standard wages, you are a scab that is single-handedly destroying the profession, and are therefore worthy only of contempt. However, if you go to work for a major airline like Northwest for less than industry standard wages, you are to be congratulated for your achievement.
Just trying to understand the rules... |
It would be pretty obvious to all but the most dense, especially IF you had been paying attention to recent airline history.
But since you've dragged your dead horse out (again) let's beat it one more time.
Until jetBlue came on the scene, the going rate for narrowbody Captains in the U.S. was about $190 - $200 an hour.
Along comes non-Union jetBlue. They pay their narrowbody Captains $120ish an hour and have no pension plan. They become the hometown airline of the largest media outlet in the world and consequently the media darlings. For the first couple years, they rake in the dough because of their incredibly low wage scale.
In order to compete, USAir hold a gun to the heads of the pilot group and demands wage concessions. They get them and USAir wages sink to where? Amazing. The same as jetBlue.
United uses the bankruptcy court to negate the pension plan and drop wages to where? Again, jetBlue rates.
Northwest threatens bankruptcy court and demands pay cuts to, you guessed it, jetBlue rates.
Delta, THE DAY BEFORE THE LAW CHANGES PREVENTING THIS, declares bankruptcy so they can reduce pay rates to jetBlue levels and gut the pension plan.
Is it actually possible you CANNOT see the linkage between these events? Or is it just that you are a jetBlue pilot and WILL NOT?
Because for most of us legacy pilots, the cause and effect is clear. And now, along comes outfits like Allegiant ($110), Virgin ($95) and Skybus (
$65!?!) who seek to lower the bar even further.
And you can bet the airline managers are examining possible way to lower
OUR PAY to those levels. And even the monkeys at jetBlue who started the whole ball rolling are not exempt. You can bet the Needleman and his cronies are eyeing that Skybus rate and looking to gut those poor spineless non-Union bastards just like they gutted the rest of the profession.
So, that's the long answer to your question. Basicly, you go to one of those scumbag outfits and you have earned the contempt of every Unionized legacy airline pilot in America. And there is
NO WAY I'm extending you the
UNION NEGOTIATED privilege of a jumpseat ride. Go ask one of your Non-Union scum brothers to take you to work or get you home.