Originally Posted by
DMEarc
Your carrier wasn't on the brink of Bankruptcy as PNCL seems to be.
The pilot group and the PNCL MEC has 2 choices. And 2 HARD CHOICES.
1. Take small concessions in work-rules, pay or contract sections in an effort to help the company reach their desired financial results.
OR
2. Take their chance in bankruptcy court and have a judge throw out your contract, your 401k match, unilaterally cut pay and most likely cut flying which would lead to MASS job losses.
I don't know if any of you guys look at your companies balance sheets, but it is CLEAR by indications of cashflow and expected costs that the company is in trouble. There is something deeper in the company that is not making money. There is no reason why they should be loosing $5 million per fiscal quarter. Q4 earnings results will show a bigger loss, I'm expecting.
You do not want to go to bankruptcy court with a company who is loosing that amount of money/per quarter against $1B in revenues. THINK.
Wrong. We were told at the time that if we did not cut costs and give concessions to the company, we were heading straight for bankruptcy....and the same arguments you are making right now were made back then. It sounded something like this:
"Let's take small concessions or else a bankruptcy judge do it for us. Don't worry though, as soon as the company turns around there will be snap backs for pay."
So we gave, the bankruptcy never happened, and Uncle Jerry swooped in. Our management left with a sh1tload of money in their pockets. Contract guaranteed severances, they said. So I gave, and the rest of the XJT pilots and FA's gave so management could line their pockets.
I will tell you this....NEVER AGAIN. It is probably the single biggest regret I have in this career so far. To add insult to injury, we now work for a profitable parent company, and we still have not seen any snap backs in pay.
My advice guys...don't do it. You will give and you will only get more angry when you see management taking their multi-million dollar bonuses and severance packages anyway. Don't fund the corporate greed. We are all underpaid as it is already.