When I think about various labor negotiations going on in the airline industry, I become fairly sure that the issues are fairly close to the same for everyone.   If you ask most people what they want from their job, they’ll generally respond with a desire for their work to be valued more now than 10 years ago, an opportunity to play a role  in their destiny, job security or even just the opportunity to not look over the shoulders for a while.

The order of priority is different for each person, of course, but at the end of the day, it’s about their role being valued.  I could spend days writing about how an airline such as Southwest injects this into their culture but they really are the exception to the rule.

American Airlines is negotiating furiously with its pilots this weekend and I wonder how that has gone for both sides.  I would imagine that for the pilots, the goals are better wages, a retirement that has some security to it, opportunities to rise within the seniority system and leadership. 

For the company, I would imagine the goals are better productivity, fewer obligations to a pension system that is unsustainable in the long run and the opportunity to introduce change quicker in response to a market that changes weekly in this era. 

Ironically, I suspect they are not far apart in their goals but how each perceives a win is probably very, very different.  American Airlines “wins” by being able to announce an agreement that offers them greater flexibility and predictable costs that are now worse than the industry average.  The company must show shareholders, investors and the financial world in general that they have a sustainable operating model for the future or the leadership involved will be asked to leave.

Pilots achieve a “win” very differently.  At AA, the pilots are a very senior group and when you reach a certain age, you want life to be just a little bit easier, not more difficult.  They’ll want better wages, a high degree of certainty when it comes to their retirement and schedules that aren’t so bruising. 

One of the biggest obstacles in this scenario is seniority.  The seniority systems closely ties pilots to the airline and makes it very damaging for a senior pilot to leave the company at any time before retirement.  Those who have tens of years invested in it don’t want to see it gone. 

Seniority systems also tie pilots to flying that they often do not like.  Pilots are humans and some enjoy doing just a few long but punishing international flights and some would actually prefer to spend 2 or 3 or 4 days doing domestic turns but sleeping in their beds more often. 

Even if you didn’t get rid of the seniority system, it would be helpful if pilots weren’t paid by the size of aircraft they fly but, rather, purely on seniority at the company.  The work involved with flying a 777 or an MD-80 is actually really not much different.  It isn’t more work to fly a twin aisle vs a single aisle airliner.  Sometimes it is different work but it isn’t “more”. 

Frankly, it would be to the advantage of safety if we could get more grey hairs flying those domstic single aisle airliner flights.   They’ve been there and done that in more circumstances and know the pitfalls better than any junior pilot does. 

Wouldn’t it be more interesting if a pilot were able to choose his destiny without having to take  a penalty because he or she doesn’t enjoy flying 777s to India and actualy prefers flying from Dallas to New York City and back more often? 

A win here would be to decouple seniority with aircraft type.  Let pilots choose what they want to fly without penalty.  Let them match their preferences to a situation where they feel they have a strength rather than be tightly bound to a style of flying they hate. 

Stop forcing them to upgrade to new aircraft and even from First Officer to Captain.  Does it really matter if a man prefers to stay a senior FO to becoming a junior Captain?  It really doesn’t. 

My suggestion here is that it would be better for both parties to quit trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.  Find ways to let pilots do the kind of work that best fits them without financial penalty.  Instead, ask for more productivity within that work and build schedules that allow pilots to achieve their monthly hours without having to be away from home for 15 to 20 days per month.  Offer incentives for those pilots to live inside their base. 

Make it possible for pilots to live a productive and rewarding life.  The happier and more rested they are from a schedule that does work for them, the more productive, safe and agreeable your workforce will be. 

It would be great to see both unions and airlines think outside of the box on these issues.  Find a way that makes both sides happier with their circumstances.  Refuse to give into inflexibility.  Be fair and trade a happier life for more productivity.  Ask for opportunities for “fence off” a portion of flying to test different work models and find those that do work for both.  Experimentation is what both sides need and it will offer the chance for both sides to try something new without having to commit to a change for years and years. 

Identify styles of flying and group them into schedule groups that pilots can bid into.  Pay pilots a wage based on seniority but not on aircraft size.  Pay pilots a bonus for living at their base instead of commuting.  Pay another bonus for taking on productive schedules.   Offer the opportunity to go fly the same aircraft in a very different setting for a limited period of time so that pilots can explore what works for them without having to make decisions that could affect them and their families for years. 

Find a way to make your people happy and you’ll find that the “costs” involved with that are far less than the costs that come from cranky pilots who are forced into demanding more money just because they feel so trespassed on by being made to fly schedules and aircraft they do not enjoy.

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