3 ms·

It's a high skill profession in an industry that largely competes on cost. One will find similarly thankless jobs in manufacturing, agriculture, and any other i

by api 3y ago

It's a high skill profession in an industry that largely competes on cost. One will find similarly thankless jobs in manufacturing, agriculture, and any other industry where the push is to squeeze margins as much as possible. Everything about flying has become substantially worse except safety. The only way the industry is able to maintain its safety record is by being heavily regulated and never changing anything.

no_wizard 3y ago
The difference of course, is that pilots can squeeze airlines almost infinitely if they want to, because without pilots, the whole operation stops. They're the difference between flights happening and not happening, and they aren't easy to replace, and certainly not easy to replace quickly Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't flexed this more.
- Analemma_ 3y ago
  They probably have less power than you think. If they actually shut down all aviation and didn’t have a very convincing PR strategy, they’d find an infuriated public (you can’t go to your daughter’s wedding, your grandpa’s funeral, etc.), which the airlines (and the government, which has a serious interest in seeing air commerce working smoothly) would absolutely use to their advantage. Don’t forget that when ATCs actually followed your logic, Reagan responded by firing them all, and even though in more recent years this has been cast as the horrible beginning-of-the-end for American unions, at the time he had broad public support, because people were incensed that one profession could shut down air travel. All this is to say that I think pilots’ unions do have a good sense of how hard to push and not push. They don’t have infinite leverage.
  - room500 3y ago
    It is also illegal for them to strike without going through mediation, etc. Pilots are allowed to vote to go on strike at any time (and they can have picket lines as if they were on strike) but they cannot stop showing up for work. Pilots are one of the few professions that are covered under the Railway Labor Act, so federal mediators have lots of power to reach an agreement between airlines and pilots
    - Analemma_ 3y ago
      Right, that’s what I mean: pilots are not legally permitted to stop showing up for work. They could stop anyway in an illegal strike, which is what the ATCs did in 1981, but this would be a very high-risk gamble.

by api 3y ago

no_wizard 3y ago

The difference of course, is that pilots can squeeze airlines almost infinitely if they want to, because without pilots, the whole operation stops. They're the difference between flights happening and not happening, and they aren't easy to replace, and certainly not easy to replace quickly Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't flexed this more.

Analemma_ 3y ago
They probably have less power than you think. If they actually shut down all aviation and didn’t have a very convincing PR strategy, they’d find an infuriated public (you can’t go to your daughter’s wedding, your grandpa’s funeral, etc.), which the airlines (and the government, which has a serious interest in seeing air commerce working smoothly) would absolutely use to their advantage. Don’t forget that when ATCs actually followed your logic, Reagan responded by firing them all, and even though in more recent years this has been cast as the horrible beginning-of-the-end for American unions, at the time he had broad public support, because people were incensed that one profession could shut down air travel. All this is to say that I think pilots’ unions do have a good sense of how hard to push and not push. They don’t have infinite leverage.
- room500 3y ago
  It is also illegal for them to strike without going through mediation, etc. Pilots are allowed to vote to go on strike at any time (and they can have picket lines as if they were on strike) but they cannot stop showing up for work. Pilots are one of the few professions that are covered under the Railway Labor Act, so federal mediators have lots of power to reach an agreement between airlines and pilots
  - Analemma_ 3y ago
    Right, that’s what I mean: pilots are not legally permitted to stop showing up for work. They could stop anyway in an illegal strike, which is what the ATCs did in 1981, but this would be a very high-risk gamble.