A couple points of ancient history, just to serve as an illustration of "some" pilots' attitudes...
1. Remember January 1997? AA's pilots were already the highest paid owrk-group at AA, and the highest-paid pilots in the industry... yet they voted DOWN a contract which would have increased their pay. I heard a number of pilots comment along the lines of "It's not about the money"... so what was it then? You want more power? Do you think that as pilots you should run the company?
2. A couple weeks before that vote, my wife and I were in the grocery store one evening, and she was asking me what the real issues were (ie, what did the pilots really want). Since I'm not a pilot, all I could tell her was what I had picked up through Jetwire, news media, or tribal communication. Well, a guy just in front of us apparently had his aft-looking radar on, because at one point he turned around (aggressively) to "join" our conversation (he wasn't invited) (but, hmmm, he was a pilot, I wonder if there is any pattern there...) Ok, I digress. He jumped in and absolutely told me "what-for" in regard to my dissapointment with what the AA pilots were up to (or at least what they were seemingly up to).
Why is this story significant? He had (apparently) his 7 or 8-ish-year-old son with him... the son was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a UAL B727 on it... I asked the guy what he did, and surprise, surprise, he's a UAL B727 Flight Engineer. What I found significant, was that he was more interested in defending his "bretheren" at AA than seeing the opportunity for his company to make more money during an AA pilots-strike shutdown.
3. I used to go to church with an AA B757/B767 FO. One day after church, he asked me for my business card, just to have on file. I the felt obliged to ask for his, and he handed me an APA card. I said "No, you goof, give me your business card." He said, "That's it." I said, with emphasis, "No, I want your BUSINESS card." He said, with greater emphasis, "THAT IS MY BUSINESS CARD!" I said "Never mind, I don't want it." So... correct me if I'm wrong, all you pilots... does the APA give you a paycheck... or does AA??
4. Remember when we acquired Reno Air in 1997/8? It was an airline of 2000 employess (we had 96,000-ish), with 200 pilots (we had 10,000-ish). Did we acquire them for their staff? No. For their pilots? Nope. For their fleet of 27-ish MD80s and MD90s? Of course not... we acquired them for the gates and the north-south west coast routes. What's significant about this story? This event - adding this "overwhelming" force of 200 pilots to our ranks - was so scary to our pilots, that they felt obligated to stage an illegal sick-out one week in February 1998... for that week, AA had to cancel 1/2 of the scheduled flights... at a cost of $100 million. The company took the pilots to court and won... well, sorta won. The court ruled that the pilots had to reimburse the company $45.5 million (ok: they cost the company $100 and just have to pay back $45.5 mil? And the company "won"? Huh??). Ok, well, so what... the APA at the time had $39 million available. The story was, this was going to be the end of the APA (and yes, all of us were very excited about the possibility). But - this is just amazing to me - the company offered to forgive the debt if the pilots would just extend the existing contract..! When I first heard this, I figured they were talking about a lengthy extension - 6, 7, 8 years? Well at least 4 or 5, right? Nope. The extension was for ONE year. ONE YEAR. Are you kidding me?!? Surely they'll be happy and just shut up now.
Well I was wrong again.
Ok, these stories are from a few years back, and I'll bet others have other relevant tales to tell. And probably, I've missed a detail or two. But the point is still the point... and I think this last little ditty empahsizes it:
I don't remember the exact dates, but somewhere in the 97-98-99 time frame, the pilots wanted to get a new travel pass classification made available to them - a classification between "A" and "D"... this was so that the guys who lived in a city other than the one they were based out of, could get to their base more easily. Well guys, here's a thought: Why don't you do what the rest of have to do AND MOVE TO THE FREAKIN' CITY YOU'RE BASED OUT OF?!?!?!?
Final thought, as a caveat: There are some pilots who are ok... the test guys. I always enjoy working with them.
Ok, rant over.
Oh, by the way, I'm an engineer, not a mechanic.
