I agree that the two parties are on a completely uneven playing field, but my opinion is that the employees have the advantage. With the possible exception of flight attendants, no other employee group has the ability to completely destroy the company within a matter or months, or even weeks. You have just one one weapon, but unfortunately, it is nuclear, and if you use it, you destroy yourselves, your opponent, and everyone else within a 10 mile radius. So it's a damn good thing that the RLA keeps you from using it the moment you have a disgreement with your employer.
Which legal option is that? 'Cause god knows we would have used it here at PCL by now.....
If you're talking about a strike, the employer also has their version: lock out. Fact is NO ONE wants a strike. You seem to think that we'd strike at the drop of a hat if we could, and that's totally incorrect. It's a last option to a hopeless situation, and the RLA, coupled with a NMB that has a certain mindset, keeps us from even THREATENING a strike. Meanwhile, management gets to keep going with business as usual, knowing that we could talk about a strike, but it will never actually happen. Therefore, we don't even HAVE said "nuclear" option. No pilot wants to strike their employer into non-existence. It's asinine and self destructive.
The way I see it, the employer is forced to deal with unionized employees. It's difficult to fire a bad employee, and too expensive and time consuming to replace striking employees. Unions have been so effective in seizing the moral high ground that, even if the employer wanted to recruit replacement workers, I doubt they would have much success. That, combined with the lengthy training process would certainly kill a company before it could get up and running again. So how do you figure the employer has the advantage?
Well, first off, the employer has no doubt done something to force the cause of unionization. Skywest is a firm example of pilots that are mostly happy with their job and their relationship with management. Colgan, on the other hand, is a pilot group that saw their company shift from a family atmosphere (which is the reason some of those pilots chose to work for that particular airline) to a management philosophy that nickled and dimed their employees to death or flat out ignored certain promises given. I have confidence that if management at Colgan had followed through on most of the pie in the sky promises they made, Colgan would still be a non-union carrier. As it is, management are the ones that force employees into unionizing. I'd rather keep my 1.9% per paycheck, but I have zero faith and trust in my management. That lack of faith isn't from what people have said or told me, it's based on personal observations of actions and policies of the management team themselves. As for how the employer has the advantage....well, if we truly DID have an advantage, we wouldn't be in contract negotiations going on five years. We don't negotiate for the sheer fun of it.
Like a nuclear war, a lot of innocents are killed in these situations. I think of Eastern Airlines. The IAM were bound and determined to get their way with Frank Lorenzo, to the point that they (and later, the pilots) destroyed the company. If the destruction had just been limited to them, that might have been fine. But tens of thousands of other people lost jobs in the process, not to mention the hardships that were place on EAL's ticket-holding customers.
True, innocent people do suffer when a company is brought down b/c of a strike. But there are two sides to the table. You can't lay 100% of the blame at the IAM or the pilots. Management also can play the give and take game. And what would have the pilots and mechanics do? Give up their dignity, way of life and in some cases family to save other people's jobs? I have friends that are rampers and customer service agents at Pinnacle, and I do my best to explain our situation. 95% agree with me and understand what's going on as well as the consequences. But, at the end of the day the people I'm concerned with most are my family. I refuse to just roll over for the sake of the company and the others that work there on issues that affect my family such as financial security, health insurance and time at home. We've got guys here at Pinnacle that haven't seen a pay raise in 5 years b/c of these negotiations, yet they've seen inflation rise and their 401Ks fall. Are you saying they should just roll over and take it for the good of the company?
If enough people do that, then maybe HK will get the idea that he can't continue doing business the way he does, and still run a successful company. But how dare you destroy the livelihood of hundreds of other employees who, as the saying goes, have no dog in this fight.
Once again, there's two sides to the table. HK can just as easily meet the pilots in the middle on certain issues, and it'll more than likely be a done deal. I'd be willing to bet that he HOPES the pilots strike or some how close down TSA. Then, magically, GoJets will see a LOT of growth. He can even then point the finger at the pilots for the demise of the company even though he could easily have saved it AND maintained profitability.
I don't know who you voted for, but I feel comfortable in assuring you that our current president is not going to limit government influence in your life or your job. If anything, he will expand it. Look what he's doing with the banking and auto industries: pay caps, production standards, government oversight committees, etc. And it's only been 1 month! How long do you think it will be before those "initiatives" are expanded beyond "eeevillll management?" I'm guessing not long.
Actually, steps are already being taken to help us out. It's more of an NMB issue that's gridlocked everything. In a fair world, the NMB would objectively look at what's going on in each individual negotiation and make a determination from there. That's how the system was designed. Unfortunately, the last administration made a "no airline strikes on my watch" determination, and *poof*, ASA, TSA and PCL were mired in negotiations that showed no signs of going anywhere. ASA eventually got theirs fixed, although I'm sure you disagree with their techniques. However, those techniques worked and if not for the current economic issues, everyone would still be employed there, and more than likely new hiring would be occurring.....despite the fact that management said ASA pilots' requests in negotiations were out of line. In the case of Pinnacle, it's very difficult for us to take a management seriously that says "that'll bankrupt the airline" then goes out, buys another airline (which until recently was LOSING $5 million a quarter), loses millions of dollars in a stock market gamble and continued to give themselves bonuses until reality checked by the economic crisis.
