Originally Posted by
pagey
we have 500 pilots.....There is no way XJT with 4000+ pilots was "pressured" by what we have.(we never had rigs anyway) You are dreaming if you think there was an exchange in the room during XJT negotiations that went along the lines of "PSA has no rigs so you can't have them either.
What happened to "pay rates don't mean anything without supporting work rules?"
O right, you people who constantly complain about everything need something new to get on your soapbox about. We have good rules to make money above our pay rates......but that doesn't count anymore does it because its now our fault that XJT's TA blows.
Total cost of a contract is a way bigger issue than just pay rates when it comes to negotiations. PSA's contract is middle of the road cost wise AT WORST when things other than rates are considered.
Actually they were pressured by under cutting airlines like PSA, it is part of a bigger picture that you are too selfish to see. In the long run though you will see the errors of your way when management makes it painfully obvious that you have been played.
On the last conference call Richard Anderson essentially gloated how Pinnacle is going to become the new standard at Delta Connection. Doug Parker then decided to approach Eagle pilots with a new TA to trend towards Pinnacle. Eagle said no, so he went to PSA and did the same thing....you guys said yes.
Now Pinnacle isn't just an outlier anymore, but a trend...a trend YOU set by voting yes. I don't agree with Pinnacle's vote, but at least they were in bankruptcy. You guys weren't and had just got a brand new contract. You had a veiled threat of a shutdown when the leases ran out and the planes were scheduled to be returned. This was a couple of years after Eagle is scheduled to have all ERJs returned.
You erased years of hard negotiating work for a promise of 30 planes and 1 more preferential interview a month. Preferential interviews? Are you serious?!?! Eagle at least had guaranteed jobs at AA (even though the flow is messed up) an interview is an absolute joke like the rest of your TA. And those new aircraft are most likely not growth because your 500 pilot airline will not be able to hire fast enough to staff them. Even RAH with all of their new aircraft on order and the SJS inducing E-175 is having trouble keeping up with attrition. Their CEO said in their last conference call that they might have to park 50 seaters to keep the 70 and 76 seaters flying. PSA will be no different. The requirements to be a pilot have gone up by a factor of 3-5 shrinking the available supply. Apparently every PSA pilot missed economics 101: when demand outstrips supply, the price goes up. That doesn't mean you give concessions, especially when there are larger aircraft with more revenue generating potential being offered. More seats means more bodies to spread the costs out over. Keeping your same contract is a defacto concession since you are generating more revenue at the same costs. So again why did you take concessions again?
You said it "isn't that bad," well Doug Parker's stated goal was to get his regionals trending towards Pinnacle and only carriers that did that would get new airplanes. You got new airplanes and gave him exactly what he wanted.
You are also missing the big picture. You all assume that the salary caps will not affect you because you will all be gone before you hit them. That same thought process has been proven wrong over and over again through decades of this industry. What makes you think you will be different? All it takes is a recession or a mainline bankruptcy and all of the sudden that mainline ladder is pulled ever further from your grasp. You could very well end up being at PSA for 20 years.