I agree I am a little late, I was trying to stay out of this but I have to weigh in with my point of view here. You can not convince me there exists a burden of proof anywhere. I don't necessarily hold the pilots of Jetblue responsible to the same level Velocipede does, however I do agree the United and NW furloughees who ran off with their 320 type ratings knew exactly what they were doing to their colleagues on the same seniority list at that point in history. In the big picture however I think they are just a symptom of the problem.
So maybe Velocipede is angry, disappointed. I don't know, but I know I am. I feel it viscerally when I look in the eyes of my father, A proud former Marine aviator, bullet scars in his neck to prove his service to our nation, 31 years of wrinkles and experiences in the cockpit of United aircraft never to bend a rivet. The change in him since the news broke at 62 years old he would have to sell the house where he and his wife of nearly forty years, recently before diagnosed as terminally ill, planned to spend their golden years. I am disappointed with a society so eager to impale itself on a supposed "free market" it is willing to stack the deck so unevenly in favor of greed and an abject dearth of ethics so it can feel content the "invisible hand" is working. Anyone who believes honestly the past 20+ years our economy has been truly a "free market" and not one regulated for corporations, by corporations, is in my opinion patently wrong. Maybe its just apathy, an unwillingness to take a stand, I certainly dont take it personally, but I am disappointed, and angry.
I don't have to agree or disagree with his tactics to salute Velocipede because the apathy stops at his cockpit door. He is willing to be uncomfortable, to make others uncomfortable to make a stand. I try to draw a line by allowing only certain carriers to be used by my company's travel department easy for me comparatively. If people want to go it on their own, contract pilots, proto scabs, call them what you want, they chose this profession because of stands made by the professional pilots who came before them, union pilots who took a stand-sometimes risking and even losing their careers. So it seems simple to me, no proof needed, you want to go it alone, fine, just dont go knocking on Velocipedes door for what is clearly a benefit won by professionals who were unwilling to bend, break; or fool themselves into thinking going to a low paying, basically subsidized carrier cherry picking routes from higher paying companies with "legacy costs" like thousands of employee pensions, during the worst industry downturn ever, is not hurting the profession.
