Background: I work for a airline and was making a more than comfortable wage before. Few complained about the money since it is fairly consistent across the industry for our level. We have a fairly powerful union, but really we're just subordinate to our parent company. Whatever they say, happens.
We were given about a 40k raise a few weeks back as part of our new union contract. Management threw money on the table and the union said yes please without complaining. Almost doubling the hourly rate of all of us. We were suffering from heavy attrition due to a worker shortage (yes, it does exist. There are not enough people entering the industry compared to retirements. Most of this is because there is significant financial cost to getting into the industry), and our parent airline was getting desperate to keep our guys flying. We were losing a LOT of employees to rival airlines. So they gave us a 40k raise minimum. Those who have been at the company for a few years are making a disgusting amount of money now. Try 425k a year on hourly pay.
Why are we mad about this? We had to give up a few quality of life picks. Most importantly, the ability to customize our schedules the way we want them. Some of us are pretty good at customizing our schedules, maximizing OT pay and other quirks. Not any more. We are stuck with less paying schedules per month, less flexibility. This is a huge deal to many of us. And most importantly, WE DIDNT GET A VOTE ON THIS CONTRACT. The union just signed it without giving us a chance to voice concerns or approve it. Nope, signed, here is what you get. And that's why we're mad. No vote, no voice, just here you go, suck it up. The contract is for too many years, killed our ability to customize our schedule, and we didn't get a voice on it.
There are a lot of weird things about working for an airline compared to other jobs, so hard to describe it in one post. It's a different work world compared to other places. Just wanted to voice my frustration at a new contract being shoved on us without a union vote.