Re: Expressjet & ALPA Reach Tentative Concessionary Agreemen
I don't think the people from XJT are passive I think they are faced with losing their jobs. Its easy to spout off saying they shouldn't take concessions when it isn't your company that is about to close up shop. I think it is self righteous to tell people who work for a different company that are being faced with unemployment in this economy to burn the place down when you are sitting comfy with a company that for now is doing OK. Im not at XJT so the only opinion I have is do what you think is going to be the best for the you and the pilot group. Yes concessions are bad but so is losing your job. I want what is best for the industry as much as anyone else but keeping my job means that I can feed and shelter my family and that is always going to be a bit more important than another pilots QOL. Sorry guys its just human nature. And until you are faced with your company going bankrupt with our wonderful job market the way it is today don't be so quick to judge. Its not easy for a senior captain making 100K to just find something else because he/she stood up to management.
There is a time to stand up to management and there is a time to try to work with management. Knowing that difference is what makes a labor force strong. You can be as militant as you want when your walking to the unemployment line.
Just want to address a few things real quickly.
First, I'm not asking or telling anyone to burn the place down.
Second, we are all in this fight together. When one of us hits the street, we all feel it. This shouldn't even be debated, but clearly some want to say we are all opportunists just seeking to survive. Wrong, at least for me. I want each of us to have successful careers in a profession we each love and enjoy.
Third, don't forget we are all in this fight together. No matter who we fly for, we are fighting the same fight of protecting wages, benefits, and quality of life for the profession.
This has nothing to do with being militant, as much as I know that's the easy buzz word to toss around. It simply has to do with wanting to maintain a sense of solidarity with our aviation industry brothers and sisters. Maintaining a common ground on saying enough is enough. I've seen enough families watch their quality of life quickly evaporate from them due to poor management decisions. Not because they couldn't manage their own finances, but because their management teams couldn't manage the companies finances.
I've seen enough hard working middle class Americans watch their once promised pension plans disappear, from Eastern mechanics and pilots to Delta mechanics and pilots - amongst other industries of this country.
We use to recognize a certain American standard of living. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors, we have allowed ourselves to become "Okay" with seeing a reduction in our standard of living as everyday Americans. And for what? So that we won't be able to pay cash for a large percentage of our kids' college education? So that we will have to work to the day we die since we allowed our employers to continually erode our retirement benefit packages, and we continually allowed them to reduce our wages via concessionary wage cuts so now we are not able to send enough money to a savings account to put up for a rainy day?
At what point do those who say this one time is okay do they decide enough is enough? After the third of fourth concessionary pay cut? After the third or fourth attempt by the company to save costs by reducing labor cost? When the doors close for the last time, and we have nothing to show for it? When is the tree of personal wealth and independence eroded to such a point that it is merely now a stump due to management chopping it away over a period of two or three decades - and we have nothing to show for it.
Perhaps if I didn't have such life experiences my opinion on being willing to accept a pay cut would be a bit different, but thankfully I saw how my Eastern mechanic neighbor was treated, how my US Airways neighbor across the street has been treated, and how my Delta Pilot neighbor to the left have been treated. Add in the immediate impact of my old man watching his retirement program that he was promised when he was hired in 1989 by Delta simply evaporate. These experiences don't leave me with a warm and fuzzy for Airline management. They don't leave me with a high regard for what they call trust.
They don't tell you about the realities of having to provide for a family, maintaining shelter in these flashy AOPA Flight Training magazines or in ATP's Career Pilot Training brochures.
While I think all of us can agree we have our own personal responsibilities to maintain, it simply becomes harder and harder to maintain our own responsibilities when our managers are failing us. They have their piece of the pie, and yet they are able to always come towards us and ask for some of our pie? What happens when we don't have anything else to give back? Which reaffirms my question, when is enough enough? When will those who find this concession to be okay, when will they stand up and say No? When they have nothing else to give back?
