A friend of mine worked for United as a mechanic in Boston until they decided to cut costs and get rid of their hanger. My buddy got to work outside on planes in the middle of winter. The guy who came up with the idea probably got a bonus.
Yeah, the thing is, back before deregulation, the airline industry was a great place to work. Fat paychecks, strict limit on work hours, and a chance to see the world when not just anyone could afford to do that. Then all of that went away in the course of one working lifetime.
Pilot and FA unions have some culpability in this too.
They fought for seniority based pay with rules that any new hire, even one with years of experience, starts at the bottom of the pay scale.
So, there's no incentive to jump ship. You stay where you started. Less competition means the airlines have less incentive to raise pay for more senior crew.
They also fought for extending the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65. That meant more captains staying in place, holding back promotions for first officers.
Yes...the unions basically fought for work rules that set up a "job for life" with guaranteed pay raises based on years of service only.
They missed a few issues with this. The one I mentioned, and another...when an airline goes bankrupt, it can nullify union contracts and the airline gets a free do-over.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 22.0 ms ] threadThey fought for seniority based pay with rules that any new hire, even one with years of experience, starts at the bottom of the pay scale.
So, there's no incentive to jump ship. You stay where you started. Less competition means the airlines have less incentive to raise pay for more senior crew.
They also fought for extending the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65. That meant more captains staying in place, holding back promotions for first officers.
That's just incredibly messed up.
They missed a few issues with this. The one I mentioned, and another...when an airline goes bankrupt, it can nullify union contracts and the airline gets a free do-over.