Hi,
I want to begin by saying that I agree that you should be entitled to your opinion. I'm personally ambivalent to labor unions... meaning, I wish they didn't exist and I wish they didn't take some of the tactics they take, but at the same time I understand why they exist, especially in a historical context.
Originally Posted by
readywhenyouare
Resigning and seeking better employment is exactly what 88.4% of the US population does if they are unhappy with their job. Union behavior is like constantly going back to a restaurant you hate and demanding they improve the quality of their food/service and at a better price too. The vast majority of the population would simply take their money elsewhere
I want to give a real-life scenario that I'd hope would fit in your model of how things should be. I'm a physician and have a unique skill set, making me difficult to replace. Because my employer was losing a lot of money, they decided to cut salaries, decrease time off/make working rules different from what I had signed up for. For example, we have fewer equipment techs who get the anesthesia machines set up, and that work now falls onto me. I kept going to management and was ignored... my contract kept automatically rolling over, and I kept being promised how next year would be better. I finally quit in August... and guess what? I haven't been replaced, and they're even shorter now, and services are being curtailed because it's not easy to replace my skillset.
So... Delta has something like 13,000 pilots. I can't imagine how one would negotiate contract conditions for that many people. Similar to me, a pilot has a narrow skillset that can't easily be replaced. On top of it, there are onboarding and airline-specific policies. A 737 pilot can't go to work for DL one day and WN the next without additional training. It's not in the airline's interests to have pilot turnover because of the cost of training on top of the typical costs associated with hiring. By working with a labor union, the airline can set one standard and be done with it for a while. Similarly, the system is set up to encourage people to stay around a long time via seniority preferences.
A pushback is related to firing people for issues. While I've been involved on the management side, where we've had difficulty terminating employees for some egregious behavior, the other side is that it's possible that a company doesn't evenly or fairly apply disciplinary measures across 13,000 workers. The union ensures the work rules and scope are addressed fairly.