Originally Posted by
sfozrhfco
It is not the structure of the original contract that is to blame, it is the fact that many work groups at many US airlines have to spend 3+ years after the contract has expired to work out a new one.
I disagree, at least with respect to the point I was making about why the pilots don't just switch to another carrier.
In my industry I can move to a new company with 10 years experience and my pay will reflect that, even though those 10 years came from another employer. In the airline industry I'd have 0 years on the pay and seniority scale. Such a scheme makes it financially burdensome to make the switch. The airlines like this because it helps them to protect the investments they are making in their crews in terms of training, etc. The pilots like it because they know that once they are in and past the first couple years they're going to have limited competition for seniority in terms of choosing the shifts/routes they work.
If management told the union that there was $1Bn for salaries and that the union got to split it up however they want I would guess that the end result would be similar, with the more senior guys getting paid more per hour of flight than the newer guys. Sure, the union would rather have $1.3Bn to split up but I'm not so sure that the means of how it is split would change much.
If the seniority on the pay scale was based on total experience rather than specific airline experience the salary scale would likely slide down a bit but pilots would be more mobile. Hard to say if that's a good or bad thing. I suppose it depends on your point of view.