Thread: B6 Pilots Unionize. Bye Bye Low Fares?

As members, JetBlue pilots will now be represented by the union in negotiations involving on salary, benefits, and working conditions. The union also lobbies Congress on behalf of its members.JetBlue pilots on average earned slightly more than some of its rival airlines, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Airline Data Project. The university's data showed a JetBlue pilot earned a total of $187,000 in salary plus benefits in 2012. A pilot at low-cost rival Southwest Airlines, which is also unionized, earns $185,000.Still, Captains Gustavo Rivera and Rocky Durham, representing JetBlue pilots, said in a statement that the union representation will "improve our professional careers."Founded in 1931, it is the world's largest pilot union, representing nearly 50,000 pilots at 31 airlines in the United States and Canada. JetBlue has been a nonunion airline since it was founded in 1998. Pilots there had twice before rejected moves to join the union, in 2009 and 2011.In January, JetBlue struck a new work agreement with its pilots to raise base rates by 20 percent — or $145 million — by 2017. JetBlue said then that the higher pay would be the largest driver behind a projected 3 percent to 5 percent growth in its costs per mile flown.The airline also plans to hire 125 new pilots, partly to comply with changes in federal rules about pilot rest and work limits.The new rules require pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight time, instead of 250 hours previously required of first officers, or co-pilots.New fatigue rules have also taken effect recently, limiting the number of hours pilots can fly. They coincided with a period of exceptionally bad weather in the Northeast, which led to thousands of flight cancellations.JetBlue, for instance, suspended all of its flights for 17 hours at New York’s three major airports, as well as Boston, because of a winter storm in January. The airline said then that new duty and rest rules had not caused the cancellations but had complicated its operations.