Comment by turrican
3 months ago
The article touches on this. Pilot wages are very similar across major US airlines due to heavy unionization and pattern bargaining, so labor is more-or-less a fixed cost (and not the biggest fixed cost). Additionally, pilots can and do take pay cuts in lean times. The pilots at my own airline saw a 20% pay cut in the contract following 9/11 and very reduced wage growth for a decade after that. Management took something like a 5% cut and kept the retirement benefits we lost.
Edit: I thought I recognized your name, I see we discussed pilot unions together on HN a few years back. Can I ask what you have against us? Out of genuine curiosity.
It's the same thing I have against government employee unions. I, as a consumer, don't have an option to select a flight without unionized pilots. Every additional dollar a pilot earns in wages is another dollar that comes out of my pocket. Do I get ANYTHING by paying that additional dollar? You're not creating innovation. You're a rent seeking tax on society. The very definition of a zero sum game.
I’m really sorry you feel that way.
I’m very thankful for the stability and opportunities being a union member has provided my family since I left the tech field, and I wish my friends still in tech could enjoy the same QOL rather than all of us being worse off and upper management being even richer.
I'm sorry you don't see your arrangement as parasitic to society. And I apologize for being the first person to point it out to you.