Airline Unions Gain Bargaining Power Due To COVID

[Raymond Hall]

American Airlines squares off with aircrew before holiday travel season


American offered pilots a 50% pay increase for flying during certain peak days around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day and an additional 50% increase for picking up extra holiday trips. But the pilots union voted to reject the offer.

https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2021 ... vel-season

[RightPlaceWrongTime]

I hope the AC pilot group has the gumption and courage to set the park brake come 2024. After getting raw dogged by the corp on every front through the duration of the pandemic its time we catch up and start leading this industry again. Our pilots need to realize we will get ZERO gains negotiating with a company that doesn't respect its workforce. The restart is beginning to spool up and in a short period of time the AC pilot group WILL have leverage again.

We MUST utilize this opportunity to make SUBSTANTIAL gains in every facet of our CA. Cost of living is skyrocketing, executive compensation continues to go up, yet the AC pilots are working under WAWCON that are the bare minimum that the CARS allow. PATHETIC!!!

Give yourself a good look in the mirror tomorrow and realize your worth. We are professional airline pilots that assume the responsibility of hundred of lives, and billions of dollars of liability every time we release the park brake.

The corp will require a reliable schedule and a reliable work force that the traveling public can feel confident booking their long awaited vacations on. The company CANNOT afford to lose market share to our competitors. That folks is called LEVERAGE. We are fast approaching a critical point in our careers where we will have the opportunity to demand change. Or we can continue down our current path of apathetic excuses as to why we suck.

Our union must explore the idea and process of job action. IMO its the only way we will make meaningful gains for the long term.

And for all the senior pilots who were able to enjoy a long fulfilling career with a good pension, and cheap housing/cost of living in the bases we operate out of. PLEASE think about the junior pilots that have 1-4 decades left in their career. If you have young children think about the idea of them getting into this business.

Executives come and go and take their bags of cash with them.

We are the ones who spend 50%+ of our lives away from our families, missing out on major life events, sacrificing our health and longevity. Take a look at how many pilots fly to 65 and are dead within 5 years. Pilots don't understand how much they have sacrificed to get to the position they are in today. You deserve better, I deserve better, we ALL deserve better.

You don't get what you deserve you get what you negotiate. But when we are bound by "cost neutral bargaining" we will continue to get the shaft.

I have said this before. We must be prepared for job action. The threat must be realized.

[newlygrounded]

I hope the AC pilot group has the gumption and courage to set the park brake come 2024. After getting raw dogged by the corp on every front through the duration of the pandemic its time we catch up and start leading this industry again. Our pilots need to realize we will get ZERO gains negotiating with a company that doesn't respect its workforce. The restart is beginning to spool up and in a short period of time the AC pilot group WILL have leverage again.

We MUST utilize this opportunity to make SUBSTANTIAL gains in every facet of our CA. Cost of living is skyrocketing, executive compensation continues to go up, yet the AC pilots are working under WAWCON that are the bare minimum that the CARS allow. PATHETIC!!!

Give yourself a good look in the mirror tomorrow and realize your worth. We are professional airline pilots that assume the responsibility of hundred of lives, and billions of dollars of liability every time we release the park brake.

The corp will require a reliable schedule and a reliable work force that the traveling public can feel confident booking their long awaited vacations on. The company CANNOT afford to lose market share to our competitors. That folks is called LEVERAGE. We are fast approaching a critical point in our careers where we will have the opportunity to demand change. Or we can continue down our current path of apathetic excuses as to why we suck.

Our union must explore the idea and process of job action. IMO its the only way we will make meaningful gains for the long term.

And for all the senior pilots who were able to enjoy a long fulfilling career with a good pension, and cheap housing/cost of living in the bases we operate out of. PLEASE think about the junior pilots that have 1-4 decades left in their career. If you have young children think about the idea of them getting into this business.

Executives come and go and take their bags of cash with them.

We are the ones who spend 50%+ of our lives away from our families, missing out on major life events, sacrificing our health and longevity. Take a look at how many pilots fly to 65 and are dead within 5 years. Pilots don't understand how much they have sacrificed to get to the position they are in today. You deserve better, I deserve better, we ALL deserve better.

You don't get what you deserve you get what you negotiate. But when we are bound by "cost neutral bargaining" we will continue to get the shaft.

I have said this before. We must be prepared for job action. The threat must be realized.

Job action? Cargojet (I know it's a different group) had what, 40% of their staff fall for the enormous bluff that they'd get US guys and pay them less than Canadians. I'll eat a hat if the next negotiation AC does even matches (real) inflation

[DanWEC]

Raymond, correct me if I'm wrong and I'm having a hard time finding the specifics, but did Trudeau not very quietly roll back the remnants of the back-to-work legislation issued by Raitt and Harper? I'm certain I came across the details about 4 years ago.

Could this not be utilized as an open window for strike action again? That being said, there's nothing stopping the current Fed from simply issuing another order.

[Raymond Hall]

Can't recall that process ever taking place, not to say that it did not.

My experience with the Federal Government is that regardless of the parties involved in the industrial action, the feds have little appetite for any actions that have any adverse effect on the economy, especially strikes in the transportation system. In 2000 I, with my MEC and our labour advisors, was summoned to Ottawa to receive a lecture by the then Minister of Labour, Collette Bradshaw, a Liberal, stating that the Air Canada Pilots would not be going on strike, despite our legal right to do so, and despite our 98% strike vote.