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The "How we got here" section blames pilots leaving (or being forced out,) covid illness, and storms. Then it goes on to cite a "picketing" event--that, hand t

The "How we got here" section blames pilots leaving (or being forced out,) covid illness, and storms. Then it goes on to cite a "picketing" event--that, hand to god, didn't cause any cancellations--while everyone knows it was a walkout. Now, mind you, Alaska supports BIPOC pilots. Can't leave an opportunity to signal that hard on the table. And, finally, Alaska has the best pilot remuneration. So good that the union and the company have been deadlocked for 3 years. They simply can't resist the urge to write up this bunk. Nobody appreciates it. But everyone does it anyway. This could have been one paragraph that says there was poor management that led to a compounding effect. We don't have enough pilots. We should have adjusted the routes, but we just let it.

rootsudo 5y ago
Correct, especially if you're in any Aviation related group or friends - you know exactly what is going on. Alaskaair generally does not want to pay competitive rates. This is corporate whitewashing at the worst, and I am glad that the pilots have enough collective bargaining power to demand AlaskaAir to meet their demands. I hate to suggest go on facebook, but facebook groups of pilots and general PNW aviation have tons of discussion about this, with many pilots themselves voicing comments about their opinion and experience w/ Alaskair.
bArray 5y ago
> The "How we got here" section blames pilots leaving (or being forced out,) covid illness, and storms. > Now, mind you, Alaska supports BIPOC pilots. Can't leave an opportunity to signal that hard on the table. Exactly, I don't want to know how they are training new BIPOC pilots, I want to know how they are getting the old ones back. The fact that they will have mostly inexperienced pilots is far from ideal. Besides, I don't care if my pilot meets a BIPOC quota, I want the _best_ pilot they can find. Their situation is quite dire and they should get their priorities in check.
- fennecfoxen 5y ago
  These pilots expand the candidate pool.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    Do they? They were previously refusing to hire BIPOC candidates?
    - fennecfoxen 5y ago
      When was the last time you flew a plane and noticed the pilot? Was he a somewhat older white guy? That's fine. Do we have an unlimited supply of older white guy pilots? Unlikely. If you wish to improve way you hire in an industry like the airlines, where candidates make multi-year and even multi-decade commitments to one of a very few companies, this requires you to invest in a recruitment pipeline, and do outreach. This is part of it. Career search is terrifyingly inefficient. People don't just land in jobs randomly, but they often don't realize the best career path and pick that one. Rather, labor market has a variety of structural inefficiencies and a strong component of path dependency. If your friends are all going into programming, you might think about it more seriously and decide to go into programming. If you were a white kid and none of your friends are into programming and every time you saw a programmer it was some, say, some very talented young woman of Indian descent in a sari, making references to Diwali that you didn't understand, well, you might not think programming is the career path for you. But if someone puts a bunch of ads in your neighborhood and bus stop and the newspaper and the local community college for a career in programming, emphasizing that you're welcome there too, that might change, and you might find some people you can relate to there, easing your onboarding into the community in general until you understand and can make all the jokes about Kennedy Steve squawking 7500 at the ramp.
      - ALittleLight 5y ago
        As you observe airline pilots, especially for the big passenger planes, tend to be older. This is because you need to work your way up to flying those planes. If the pilots are 50-60 years old, then, when they were born, (1960's - 1970's) the USA was ~90% white. That compares to now when it's about 60% white. So, it makes sense that older people in the US, airline pilots included, are disproportionately white compared to current population. Airlines also tend to hire out of the airforce - letting the government do the work of training pilots. The airforce is (and was) disproportionately white and male compared to the general population. It seems perfectly reasonable for airlines to hire trained pilots out of the airforce. I'm not really sure what you're saying with this comment. As I read it - it seems like you're suggesting that, wittingly or unwittingly, airlines are racist and their racism is so severe that it overrides their financial incentives to source pilots from as wide a pool as possible. And, your reason for believing this, is that you notice airline pilots are often old white men.
azth 5y ago
> Now, mind you, Alaska supports BIPOC pilots. Can't leave an opportunity to signal that hard on the table. Does this sound concerning for anyone? Not only does it come across as racist, but I would expect a company would get the best candidate they can find for these life critical positions. I don't care about the color of their skin or ethnicity, I only are that they are able to excel at their job, as people's lives are literally at stake now. I couldn't care less that they meet or didn't meet some diversity quota.

rootsudo 5y ago

Correct, especially if you're in any Aviation related group or friends - you know exactly what is going on. Alaskaair generally does not want to pay competitive rates. This is corporate whitewashing at the worst, and I am glad that the pilots have enough collective bargaining power to demand AlaskaAir to meet their demands. I hate to suggest go on facebook, but facebook groups of pilots and general PNW aviation have tons of discussion about this, with many pilots themselves voicing comments about their opinion and experience w/ Alaskair.

bArray 5y ago

> The "How we got here" section blames pilots leaving (or being forced out,) covid illness, and storms. > Now, mind you, Alaska supports BIPOC pilots. Can't leave an opportunity to signal that hard on the table. Exactly, I don't want to know how they are training new BIPOC pilots, I want to know how they are getting the old ones back. The fact that they will have mostly inexperienced pilots is far from ideal. Besides, I don't care if my pilot meets a BIPOC quota, I want the _best_ pilot they can find. Their situation is quite dire and they should get their priorities in check.

fennecfoxen 5y ago
These pilots expand the candidate pool.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  Do they? They were previously refusing to hire BIPOC candidates?
  - fennecfoxen 5y ago
    When was the last time you flew a plane and noticed the pilot? Was he a somewhat older white guy? That's fine. Do we have an unlimited supply of older white guy pilots? Unlikely. If you wish to improve way you hire in an industry like the airlines, where candidates make multi-year and even multi-decade commitments to one of a very few companies, this requires you to invest in a recruitment pipeline, and do outreach. This is part of it. Career search is terrifyingly inefficient. People don't just land in jobs randomly, but they often don't realize the best career path and pick that one. Rather, labor market has a variety of structural inefficiencies and a strong component of path dependency. If your friends are all going into programming, you might think about it more seriously and decide to go into programming. If you were a white kid and none of your friends are into programming and every time you saw a programmer it was some, say, some very talented young woman of Indian descent in a sari, making references to Diwali that you didn't understand, well, you might not think programming is the career path for you. But if someone puts a bunch of ads in your neighborhood and bus stop and the newspaper and the local community college for a career in programming, emphasizing that you're welcome there too, that might change, and you might find some people you can relate to there, easing your onboarding into the community in general until you understand and can make all the jokes about Kennedy Steve squawking 7500 at the ramp.
    - ALittleLight 5y ago
      As you observe airline pilots, especially for the big passenger planes, tend to be older. This is because you need to work your way up to flying those planes. If the pilots are 50-60 years old, then, when they were born, (1960's - 1970's) the USA was ~90% white. That compares to now when it's about 60% white. So, it makes sense that older people in the US, airline pilots included, are disproportionately white compared to current population. Airlines also tend to hire out of the airforce - letting the government do the work of training pilots. The airforce is (and was) disproportionately white and male compared to the general population. It seems perfectly reasonable for airlines to hire trained pilots out of the airforce. I'm not really sure what you're saying with this comment. As I read it - it seems like you're suggesting that, wittingly or unwittingly, airlines are racist and their racism is so severe that it overrides their financial incentives to source pilots from as wide a pool as possible. And, your reason for believing this, is that you notice airline pilots are often old white men.

azth 5y ago

> Now, mind you, Alaska supports BIPOC pilots. Can't leave an opportunity to signal that hard on the table. Does this sound concerning for anyone? Not only does it come across as racist, but I would expect a company would get the best candidate they can find for these life critical positions. I don't care about the color of their skin or ethnicity, I only are that they are able to excel at their job, as people's lives are literally at stake now. I couldn't care less that they meet or didn't meet some diversity quota.