Mirriam Webster

[BoeingBoy]

Sorry folks, but I couldn't help but jump in here.

First, I don't work for JBLU - or any of the other LCC's for that matter. I have been an ALPA member for 24 years.

Now to the meat....

There seems to be a new definition of scab, one that I wasn't even aware of. In the olden days, a scab (to a union member) was someone who crossed a picket line to do struck work. That made it pretty simple to determine exactly who was a scab.

The new definition includes "working for less than union wages" - a nice fuzzy definition that defies pinning down. What are "union wages"? I make less flying a 737-300/400 around than Delta pilots flying the 737-200 - am I a scab? I understand that I make more than American pilots flying the 737-800 - are they scabs? Mesa pilots make less than Comair pilots flying RJ's, are the Mesa pilots (including the furloughed US Airways pilots working there) scabs? And if so are the US Airways pilots allowing the RJ flying to be contracted out to scabs instead of flown by in-house express. MDA pilots might make less than Comair pilots - are the furloughed US Airways pilots who staff MDA scabs? Maybe we should even include military pilots. I'm sure that at least some of the pilots that work for the companies building military aircraft belong to a union and probably make more than a 1st Lt., so does that make all military pilots scabs?

Maybe we should expand the definition of scab to include those who work for a non-union carrier. That would certainly make it easier to tell the scabs from the non-scabs. Only problem is that most of us have worked for a non-union carrier at some point in our careers (I'll give the military guys a break this time). Does that make us all scabs? Remember that "once a scab, always a scab" applied in the good old days.

To you guys (& gals) at JBLU - I wish you luck. Enjoy the "turbogrowth" while it lasts for going from 25 airplanes to 50 airplanes happens a lot quicker than from 150 to 300.

Jim

 

[Fubijaakr]

What's so fuzzy? AWA pilots work for less. However, the difference is that their pay rate was negotiated for and agreed to by the membership. It is also contractual.

JBLU pilots CHOSE to work in a non-union carrier for non-union wages.

That, by definition makes them scabs. Especially since the wages they CHOSE to work for have a deflationary effect on Union wages. No, they haven't crossed a picket line. But they stuck it to Union pilots none the less and they CHOSE to do it.

Unapologetically, I might add. They LOVE to brag about how fast they're growing, how rich they're getting off of stock options and how they are going to run the legacy carriers out of business.

What they aren't so proud of is that they're nothing but SCABS dismantling the airline business for their own selfish benefit.

:angry:

 

[BoeingBoy]

Ok, I think I've got it now...

If you don't belong to a union you're a scab - like everybody at Delta except the pilots, like a significant percentage of the ground employees at "express" operators, like a large part of the ground personnel at my airline before various managements effectively forced them to vote in a union by cramming pay & benefit cuts down their throat.

I choose not to engage in name calling. First, it accomplishes nothing except possibly satisfy a childish urge to strike out when one is unhappy with their own situation. Second, I wish no employee of another airline ill - they are a competitor, not a rapist and murderer invading my home intent on mayhem.

I don't know about your situation, but if I have an enemy, it is the management of my own company ( and the ones that have preceeded it for the last 12-15 years. One new CEO promised "turbogrowth" but wanted concessions to accomplish it. I'll quote his words because they are burned into my brain - "nobody will loan us the money to buy 400 Airbuses unless we get our cost in line". 8 years and a round of concessions later we don't have near 400 Airbuses and the ones we have are either leased or otherwise encumbered to the hilt.

Another CEO talked about being "labor-friendly". Two rounds of concessions and one bankruptcy later I've taken a 33% paycut and lost 60% of my pension - if the company is around to pay it when I retire (and I'm one of the lucky ones). Now this same CEO is saying more "belt tightening" is required - while gladly showing pictures of his multi-million dollar house being built in the islands.

My relative position on the seniority list is the same as it was in 1989. So much for turbogrowth and labor-friendly. Do I have reason to be bitter - you bet. You see, I've experienced what the JBLU & LUV folks are experiencing. Before it was bought out by my current employer, my airline experienced turbogrowth - 25% or so a year for 5 years at a company nearly twice as old as LUV qualifies as turbogrowth. Management could seemingly could do no wrong, we employees were upbeat. The pay wasn't as much as at some of the other majors (yes, it was union negotiated), but the "rising tide was floating all ships".

The question is "With whom should I be bitter?"

 

[Farley]

What's so fuzzy? AWA pilots work for less. However, the difference is that their pay rate was negotiated for and agreed to by the membership. It is also contractual.

JBLU pilots CHOSE to work in a non-union carrier for non-union wages.

That, by definition makes them scabs. Especially since the wages they CHOSE to work for have a deflationary effect on Union wages. No, they haven't crossed a picket line. But they stuck it to Union pilots none the less and they CHOSE to do it.

Unapologetically, I might add. They LOVE to brag about how fast they're growing, how rich they're getting off of stock options and how they are going to run the legacy carriers out of business.

What they aren't so proud of is that they're nothing but SCABS dismantling the airline business for their own selfish benefit.

:angry:

Oh, I get it now, you're just an embittered little @#$%.