Originally Posted by
djrogs03
Whoa whoa whoa...what did you think was going to happen? Anyone who has done their homework over the last several years knows that the company with the lowest cost margin gets the airplanes. Where have the aircraft gone? To the Lowest bidders...where were the jobs lost...Comair and soon 9E (ALPA carriers) because of high costs. Just because it's not written in fine print on a contract doesn't mean it won't happen. Why not start a flow and give mainline guys an oppurtunity to have a place if crap hits the fan like CZ has? Keep ALPA pilots flying. It's business 101. Why give 76 airplanes to 9E or OH operating with 15+ year payscales when you can operate the same aircraft with guys at CZ and G7 at 5-6 year pay. As I mentioned before I don't blame any pilot group for the choices they make, and I don't blame a single pilot for a yes or no vote, because in reality a pilot makes a decision usually based on what's best for him and if he has one, his family. I'm all for mainline taking back flying...it is your flying. Period. My conceed statement was just saying that giving up larger airframes, because in reality, Delta has 76 seat payscales. Why not fly 76 aircraft there? Trust me I know it was a net loss in Regional seat feed...it will bump mainline flying in between 60-65% in the not so distant future...that's a good thing
You never completed the task. Show me a mainline pilot group that controls whom the regional flying is awarded to. We as a bargaining agent only have so much leverage. We can't raise pay, improve work rules, improve WB scope, recapture all flying, and sent all regional flying to ALPA pilot groups. We have to negotiate. It's not easy when AA pilots are fighting BK, UAL pilots are bargaining up from a BK contract, CAL pilots from a POS 2003 concessionary contract(which supposedly averted BK) and Us Air pilots don't even have a single contract yet! DALPA has managed to negotiate 2 contracts with vast improvements and job recapture, while every other Legacy pilot group has 0.
What 9e has become sucks, but it's not DALPA's fault. Pinnacle had no business buying Colgan or Mesaba.