Originally Posted by
FlyJSH
I don't think anyone sold how great Pinnacle (actually Colgan) was, but some of us thought it was a reasonable/decent place following the union and the contract.
Alas, decent work rules and decent pay crippled the mighty bottom feeder.
So the lesson learned: if one works for a company that pays average wages and has average QOL, the company will be short lived.
Not true. XJT has a relatively good contract by even todays standard, and that was achieved back in 2004. They are still kickin today.
What did Pinnacle in was combining all 3 carriers pilots into one list as quickly as they did. There was no need for that. Running the three carriers separately, at least for the time being, would have saved this company millions in training events, bypass pay, combination expenses, etc. In comparison, look at ASA and XJT. The Corp bought the company, but they have NOT merged the two groups together. And why should they so soon? They have so many things to take care of before an operation should be combined with one seniority list. That idiot Bloch allowed everyone to jump across without any fences (for the time being) also hurt Pinnacle. Lets just be honest and get to the meat of the matter: it is absolutely crazy to allow everyone from all 3 airlines to jump across all 3 airlines right away. I remember I protested this back in the day when 11-08 and 11-09 were coming out. I was told this was our "contractual right" to do so, and was never given any answer on the financial viability of that option. Oh well. I guess you can't fight facts with facts.
If I were running things, and the beneficial well being of Pinnacle pilots was my #1 interest, I would have never agreed to one list, nor binding arbitration. I'd rather take the potential chance of a future whipsaw then a guaranteed loss of a fleet cut, aka the Mesaba Saabs (which was known at the time) and the entire Colgan operation (which wasn't known at the time, but the writing was on the wall ever since the BUF crash).