Originally Posted by sigep_nm

Not sure if anything will come out of this and I guess I dont care but I took a shot at it anyway. This is a copy of the email that I sent to Bill Oreilly, not political just a shot at getting some attention on the pay issue

Dear Mr. Oreilly,

Let me start this letter off by letting you know that this is not a pro union anti company message. I am a card carrying union member but very conservative and pro business. This letter is clearly a plea for help in a situation in which a company, my company pinnacle airlines, is commiting a travesty against its employees. Over a year and a half ago Pinnacle Corp. purchased Mesaba Aviaiton, a wholly owned subsidiary, from Delta Airlines. The purchase created a company with three airlines, Pinnacle, Mesaba, and Colgan. We were shortly after able to agree on and ratify a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement. A few months later we entered binding arbitration to create one integrated seniority list. For the next year we as a company faced many financial challenges in integrating the three companies into one. It was soon discovered that certain contracts that we had were unprofitable and the overall cost of combining the companies created a situaiton in which we were burning through cash at a faster rate than were bringing it in. The company came to the pilot union asking for concessions to the current contract in order to avoid bankruptcy. Our representives sat down and attempted to reach an agreement to keep the company out of bankruptcy while at the same time avoiding large losses in the quality of life department. After reviewing the data it became the opinion of our Economics analysts that all of the concessions that the company were asking for were not necessary. The company refused to meet with our negiotiatiors and moved forward without our assistance. This is typical in all walks of life, however this is not were the problem lies. Approximately two weeks our CEO Sean Menke, and COO John Spanjers were given substantial raises from the board of directors, according to an SEC filing. These raises were cited as a necessary due to the increase workload that they took on due to the departure of the CFO, last name Christie, who left for another carrier. I believe the raises total around $500,000. On April 2nd, Pinnacle officially declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Once again this is all bankground but not the issue that I have.



For the last six months or so pilots have not been recieving their pay for the services that we have already rendered. I know of some instances in which over half of a pilots paycheck has not been paid, and the company has not made that pilot whole. There has been little to no communication from the company to the individual pilots in the forms of returned calls, or email correspondance. Most are left in limbo without any record of reciept, to put it bluntly the company just flat out doesnt care. They are well aware of the problem and seem to be choosing not to do anything about it. The union has offered to assist in the process but the company has refused and continued, and still continues to operate status quo. The travesty is not in paying executives raises, but in their failure to pay the obligations to the employees that we have earned in the form of a paycheck. We work, and will continue to work as professionals providing safe service to our passengers. This is a cry for help since the company has made little to no effort to rectify this situation. We have mortgages and children and bills to pay for, and while this hardship is not anything worse than many americans are facing, it is an outright crime and severe lack of ethic and an immoral action. I have been a long time viewer of the factor and a reader of all of your books, I know you are looking out for the people, and I plead that you help look after us.



I wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the company. These trangressions by the company are harmful to the working envirornment and the safety culture that we strive to maintain in our profession. I thank you for your time, and if you see this a worthy cause I would welcome you assistance as would all the other 2800 pilots on the pinnacle seniority list. Once again I do not seek assistance in the bankruptcy process as that is a cause that we will take ownership for, but we can not continue to work while not getting paid to do so.