[turrican]

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.

[jmpman]

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.

[turrican]

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.

[jmpman]

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.