[surreal1221]

Originally Posted by b3181981

their are two things you bring to every table. those are your knowledge, skill sets, and experience basically you and your ability to walk away. Management knows this and FO pilots have shown what they are worth by staying in a position that pays them surf wages. Management also knows that any 300/50me hour pilot can fill the role of a warm body in the right seat to comply with a FAA reg.

they have shown this by hiring such people in the past and the people they hire are happy to be there even if the wages are horrible because most people coming out of flight school have student loans that have to be paid. they know just around the corner if they are not let go that in the next year their pay will go up by 25 percent and after that up and up till they leave for another airline with better future pay even if they have to start at the bottom of that ladder.

FO's have no real bargaining power. if you were to take all of the FO's on strike the airlines could just fire them all with only a limited amount of interruption in operations. they would just fill those slots with 300/50me pilots.

the only real people who have any power at an airline are the CA and the ground crew. If you don't have ground crews to fix and support aircraft they don't fly and with out the captains they don't fly either. Now I know you need FO's and other cabin staff but these people are easy to replace for the most part as they don't require a lot of training or time to complete that training.

As far as real wage for real work let me tell you a story. I went into the fbo where I do my flight training looking for some mechanics work between working my other contracts they offered me 8 dollars an hour. now I'm not complaining about the offer, it was only side work mind you but I know what they are charging people and what they are paying people. they were charging 75 an hour to the customers, paying a helper 8 dollars an hour, paying the A&P 15 an hour, an A&P with IA 20 an hour, and the chief of maintenance 25 an hour.

when I started flight training my instructor was being paid 15 an hour when the school was charging 40. the school only paid starting instructors 10 an hour. the point people will always be wage slaves when they can't afford to leave and their is no where else to go that pays well.

And people go crazy because I provide my opinion on my profession. . .