In my opinion, there are two things that need to happen in order to completely reshape this industry. The first has already been stated. As Seggy said, the majors have to be made fully responsible for any incident/accident that happens at a regional. This will force them to care about more than just the price point of the contractor. It will force them to care about the experience, training, attitude, and overall culture that comes along with that price point.
The second thing that has to happen is the removal of longevity incentives that entice people to make careers at the regionals. Start FOs at a decent wage so that you can get good people in the door. Keep CA pay right around the current fourth or fifth year pay so as to encourage people to leave. Start people with 12 or 13 days off per month, but take away the schedules that have 19 or 20. You could also keep 401K match at a modest level and keep PTO at one or two weeks no matter how many years the pilot has been with the company. I really feel that the minute people can have a better life at a regional airline than at a major is the minute that that particular airline begins to fail. And this is where I tie my response back in to this thread.
Every response so far has congratulated the Eagle MEC for turning down what was more than likely a really crappy offer. While yes, it is a great thing that a pilot group finally said no more, we also have no idea what the actual details in the offer were. We all assume that the "B-Scale" that was offered was for lower pay rates across the board. What if, and this is a huge what if, the "B-Scale" that was rejected was actually just a removal of the longevity pay scale? What if the offer was actually for all FOs to make $40/hr and all CAs to make $65/hr? Get people in the door and then encourage them to leave. Would that really be that bad?
