"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
news:8fe9b408-db41-494c-8015-

Clearly, they can't be easily replaced or the airlines wouldn't be
scraping the bottom of the barrel for new hires. I learned
about supply/demand in Economics 101 but I'm sure the airline executives
know exactly what they're doing.

First, you can only strike if you are part of a union. Federal laws give
unions protections that allow them to gain excess benefits,
beyond what supply and demand allow for. In short, when a union is
involved you do not have a free market (the employeer has his hands tied
and his nuts in a vice).

Well, having worked as a system administrator and seen countless jobs
shipped over to Bumfkistan, I'm not so interested in employers' interest
anymore. It is quite literally us and them. You do what the desk-pilot
with the MBA says, when they say, for how much they say, for as how long
they say, and it doesn't matter how well you do it because as soon as they
can hire somebody offshore to do it for less, your ass is out the door.

Most airlines are on the edge of bankruptcy (if not already in bankruptcy)
so asking for more money would just kill the host.

They should fire an executive and hire a couple of dozen pilots with the
money.

Asking your airline to increase its cost structure to increase your pay
can literally put it out of business in
today's market.

What do you suppose their HR, marketing and IT people make? I'd bet that
their 20-year-old Help Desk techs make more than starting pilots. All kinds
of people talk about it and excuse the behavior but the reality is that the
airlines are desperate for pilots; dangerously so, according to the media
and inevitable consumer opinion. But, hey, when an engine fails on a 737,
maybe they can call the Help Desk.

America reaps, America sows. Consistently, America makes excuses for its
backwardass business logic. (In 1980 few people would have bought anything
"Made in the U.S.S.R." Now we're having to check to make sure the crap the
rival superpower we helped build isn't feeding our kids lead paint.

-c