Originally Posted by
Squallrider
Doesn't pay me more or less because expressjet costs inc money...however it doesn't deteriorate the companies long term viability, something that is more important than a few dollars which is what expressjet hasn't figured out. Your contracts are not sustainable in the regional market but you'll fight management to the death to kewow something that's not sustainable, you lose flying you go out of business. Inc doesn't win by expressjet going out of business but they can't keep a operation going that keeps losing money. Investors have been asking what are you going to do about expressjet every earnings call I've been on. The last one the answer was the same as before "try negotiate with United" but they added winding down unprofitable flying.
I think you meant to say that it DOES deteriorate long term viability. And I'm saying that that isn't xjt pilots' fault. It was our CEO that decided to whipsaw us in 2008 which made xjt unprofitable. And it was our CEO who decided to actually buy xjt in 2010 after he had negotiated a money losing CPA that you correctly say is not sustainable. And it's our CEO who decided to keep us separate in order to suppress your wages and mine. So why should we pay for our CEO's mistakes and his willingness to pit his employees against each other? Was is it you don't get about that? I've even said that we were open to concessionary negotiations if it meant a complete merger. But our CEO's corporate culture gets in the way of that. That's all I'm saying. And like I already said, we are not trying to burn anything down. For example, we are negotiating PBS work rules to implement onto our contract BEFORE getting a joint contact with the CRJ side. We are willing to work with management in mutually agreeable way. It's actually our CEO that has done more damage to xjt than any employee group has. Lastly, I believe that the death nail was hammered into place when our MEC decided to roll over in 2010. I know they have no problems winding down xjt if things don't turn around and I'm ok with that. I'm not married to this company nor career. I just feel bad for the others who don't have a back up plan. It's said that corporate culture may end up harming thousands of families. And for what? Just to keep us from making a bit more or getting some better work rules. All in order to make some institutional shareholders some more money.
Originally Posted by
disillusioned
Yeah it is all your guys fault that my bonuses have went down!! Oh wait, I guess my low wages and lack of work rules allows Inc to purchases other airlines (i.e. Air Meekong) but if that would have made money, I'm positive they would have shared it with us pilots.
As soon as pilots realize that operations are such a small drop in the bucket, we won't see any significant gains in pay packages. Hell, I can give myself more of a raise on each trip by flying the block than I will get out of this upcoming offer. I have lost more than 2% in QOL each year just by SW making up their own interpretations of 117 and the PBS buffers they use. But since it cost them about $6 to have me sit at the airport for 4 hours, they will schedule the trips that way. There is no reason we should be this many years into 117 and not be able to stack trips.
Would any of this change with a union? Maybe not. But it really is tiresome to hear our pilot group act like it would put the company under to pay me for the hours I am away from my family. There is so much waste with duplicate management and outdated equipment (we still do payroll with an f'ing excel sheet), but whatever we do, let's not make any changes. Just keep telling the pilots how expensive they are.
Having a union is so much more than just a contract. Especially in this career.