Disgruntled pilot
Who all in the coop is part of a pilot union? I don’t think I even know anyone who is in some sort of an aviation related union. It is not really a thing in the helicopter industry and I wouldn’t even know what the benefits might be or if there are any. Do you guys think Chuck will benefit from unionizing? I have a feeling this might not be the last we hear him talk about it 😉
I am, however, familiar with the annual review … somewhat. They can be pretty funny in my industry as well. At one company I worked, the boss hated to sit down and listen to the employees, so he just gave everyone an automatic two-dollar-ish raise every year to avoid having to meet with the pilots and talk about what went wrong. Another company I worked for did a “self-review” which the employees filled out themselves and submitted. I always did pretty awesome on those actually, LOL.
And most smaller operators didn’t have anything official of any kind. It’s kind of surprising Hans even took the time, although something tells me this might have been less Hans’s idea and more getting instigated by Chuck to wiggle out a raise …
In Portugal you have APPLA – Associação Portuguesa dos Pilotos de Linha Aérea (Portuguese Airline Pilots Association). It’s not exactly a union, but it actually has some weight on some major decisions, such as new airfields (well, airports) locations (so, not so much on their wages, but i guess that’s not their focus).
There is the “Vereinigung Cockpit” in Germany, which, according to wikipedia, most airlines recognise as their negotiation partner for matters of employee rights and salaries, which makes them a Gewerkschaft (trade union). I think quite a substantial percentage of airline pilots are members of “Cockpit”, which is a prerequisite for their recognition as a union which can then negotiate a binding collective agreement (“Tarifvertrag”).
Speaking of reviews, I work in the broader domain of aerospace, but have nothing to do directly with flying, and our annual reviews expressly exclude salary negotiations, because reasons.
ALPA, Airline Pilots Assoc…United Airlines… but that is just the bigger pilot groups. Follow the money, union boss gotta get paid.
My first airline job was a smaller non union outfit and that gave me a great benchmark to really appreciate the differences. For airline pilots there are major benefits in things like work schedules rest. Even the new rules that all passenger airline pilots have to work under with regards to duty and rest requirements were in large part established with input from the major pilot unions. The union is also one of the biggest drivers to maintaining the captain’s final authority and the ability of any pilot in either seat to shut down the operation if they feel safety is being compromised. While the major airlines do embrace a safety culture, removing the pressure of what is going to happen in hindsight when someone else looks at the scenario really helps remove some of the stress of making such a decision.