It's time for a change?

[Bigsweetie]

Hey ladies,
I know i'm not the only one whose DH has been screwed by the industry. Do you feel as helpless as I do?

Do you think there's anything we can do? Or do you think that the airline owners are just too dang powerful to stop at this point? I'm just curious what you ladies think.

I was wondering if it would work to go to the media with this. I know they broadcast alot of the concessions, etc., but they never tell the whole story. Do you think that the general public would be outraged if they knew what REALLY went on (including how much/little pilots get paid)? I know most people don't care cause they want a cheap ticket, but I wonder how safe they'd feel with a FO that makes $23,000/yr.

Also, I was wondering about a nation-wide "sick out". There's alot of guys on Jetcareers and DH's here, if enough guys "got sick" it could have a REAL financial impact on an airline. Let them know we're fed up, ya know?

Or, we could tell our DH's to write up EVERY STINKIN LITTLE THING wrong with the plane or fly as slowly as they can to wreck on-time arrivals and delays. Pilots really have alot of power, you know. Just most of them have too much integrity to use it (cause the pax would suffer). But aren't the pax already suffering indirectly? Having their planes flown by scabs or inexperienced pilots (cheap labor) is not safe for them.

I hate to say it, but the only way that I can see change in the industry is for pilots to be willing to utilize whatever power they have and willing to possibly lose their job over it.

I know that will probably never happen, but a girl can dream - can't she?

LOL!

If you have any other ideas, i'd be interested to hear them.

LET'S RALLY GIRLS!!

[MQAAord]

The things you mention have been done & circulating for decades.

The media doesn't care about how little pilots make. In the eyes of the media & the public pilots are paid 'well', and to a lot of people $23,000 a year isn't that bad a salalry. Kind of like how the general population thinks all docotrs are rich, but they don't show the starving first year residents eaten ramen just like new-hire pilots. ALPA has complained often about how their press releases don't get picked up by the media. The company's do, but the union's don't. Personally, I think ALPA should do a better marketing job to get 'their side' out there. Really, I would like to see the public have a better understanding of what it takes to get to a major, but most people don't give a damn as long as they can get from JFK-LAX for $99. This will not change until, as the industry degrades and the quality of people & maintenance suffer, airplanes start crashing and people start to die. It will happen.

A nation-wide sick out is illegal. It would be an illegal job action that every pilot who participates in could and probably would be fired for. Job actions MUST be kept within the legal framework of the RLA & the contract.

Write-Up campaigns are very popular, and do have an effect as long as participation is a high enough percentage of the pilot group. It can take awhile for a write-up campaign to take effect though, because most minor write-ups are deferrable, and can simply be 'pencil-whipped' and left be for a certain period of time.

TWA once did a '15-minute DOT' campaign. Where every flight was exactly 15 minutes late leaving & arriving. It was enough to compromise the DOT's on-time perfomance standings, but it didn't screw the passengers because EVERY flight was 15 minutes late.

The only thing that is going to change this industry is when people start to die. That's the only way change has ever taken place. Every rule you see is written in blood, it takes accidents to get rules/procedures to change. As the rewards of the pilot career dissapear, the good pilots will not be willing to invest 10s of 1000s of dollars and years of their lives for no payback at the end. Maintenance that is done shoddily & cheapily will result in compromised safety. People take for granted how safe the airline industry is. It is so safe because of the qualitiy & calibur of people working. When those people go away, the good safety record WILL start to erode. Planes will crash, people will die, and THEN and only then will the public start to care, and the CEOs will start to wonder what the heck happened.