[ElyJs]

These ideas are crazy. Management doesn't determine pay based on whether they are good or evil. They make decisions based on money. If they keep the labor happy, they will do their job, not call in sick as much and generally be more productive, but most importantly not organize. We as pilots need union protection because it is extremely hard to recognize pilot productivity. When you give that pilot a raise his productivity does not increase, he still gets airplane from point A to point B for X amount of dollars. You can call management evil if you like because yes their job is to keep labor costs low and increase shareholder value. Effectively their job is to pay you as little as possible. I guarantee they had an analyst run the numbers and determine that by declaring bankruptcy they would be able to reduce labor costs by X amount of dollars. This was the best option to increase value so thats what they did. This was their way to muscle the labor groups.

I want to increase pilot pay and get as much bang for the buck for my flying. Here are my conclusions so far on the only way this is possible.

1. Increase collective bargaining power. (vote, stand united, let your voice be heard)

2. Reduce the quantity of labor
a. this could be done by increasing FAA minimums to enter the industry
b. prove that a low time pilot costs the company more money (ie smoking holes, higher insurance premiums)
c. as flight training becomes more expensive less people will do it
d. educate people on the truths of the industry (get more people to demand more compensation, accepting low pay kills us)

3. Increase demand for labor
a. get more people flying (VLJs and foreign demand will help this)


Way I see it we have the most control over 1 and maybe 2(d), the invisible hand determines the rest.



If you really want someone to call evil then go after the shareholders. They are the ones that will replace management when value is decreased. I agree that Bankruptcy should result in management being fired and left with nothing.