Originally Posted by
Lobaeux
You're just plain wrong. This company cares about making money for one thing: shareholders. JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER COMPANY! Spirit is just like every other company out there, to make a profit, otherwise it'd be a..... ding, ding, ding, non-profit organization. (Except the NFL, and other like organizations that are actually for profit but somehow have managed to lobby for non-profit status)
Now, I'll grant you the executives in this company are major shareholders, so in a small roundabout way, they are looking to make profits for themselves, but to just unilaterally say theyre in it solely for themselves is a little short sighted.
That being said, the last time Spirit pilots went on strike, Spirit was a privately held company, that's not the case now. Spirit executives will be beholden to the shareholders and if you think shareholders and by proxy Wall Street analysts will stand for protracted labor negotiations, you're wrong. I'm not saying it'll be quick negotiations, and initially it'll seem like a good idea, but Wall Street likes stability and protracted negotiations with its most visible labor group is not stability.
Please tell me more about the time I was on a picket line at Spirit Airlines!
Shutting down Spirit Airlines for 5 days in 2010 was the only way management signed a contract.
Would Wall Street really hate to see drawn out labor negotiations? The flight attendants have been negotiating fruitlessly since 2007! Our stock has never been stronger.
The company just fired all gate agents that work for us besides FLL so they wouldn't unionize.
Spirit treats the "face" of the airline terribly, and things couldn't be better.
We, as pilots, aren't viewed any differently by management than the flight attendants or gate agents in that we are just labor. A cog in the machine. There are thousands of eager dudes at 9E and other similar fine organizations willing to come here because it's so much better than where they are. We can all be replaced if we don't like being here.
Wall Street doesn't care if you or I have a contract or we are happy. As long as margins and earnings are strong, that's all that matters.
This LOA is a barometer to see what a bunch of pushovers this pilot group is for C2015. Let's send a message we aren't.
What I want you to take away from this: we are worth much much more than what we're compensated. We are tremendously experienced, and work hard for this company.
Agreeing to a concessionary LOA is the absolute last thing we should be doing.