Originally Posted by
skypilot35
You're asking me to prove a negative. Do you honestly believe Skywest Airlines would have gotten just as much if they were union? Before you say they would have gotten more, look at the union regionals (excluding XJT) and compare.
I wouldn't say we are not willing to try. I am willing to bet within the next 2 years Skywest will vote in a union. MY OPINION. QOL is decreasing for everyone on the seniority list, not just the guys on reserve. It's not a money issue and the company seems intransigent on the work rules. We need a stronger negotiating tool, but the reluctance is because of what I've outlined above.
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Exactly.
On another note, the offer we currently have from management is not concessionary (on the face of it), but it's ridiculous all the same. The fact that UAL just posted a $582+ million dollar profit is one of many reasons people call 1.00 /.50 a slap in the face.
Nevets, you figure out how to get the entire regional pilot group on one list and under one MEC, I'm in. I'll volunteer to help. Otherwise, a regional union is ineffective. Lowest bidder wins and there is always gonna be a lower bidding...race to the bottom competitor....that's capitalism.
Look, there are ups and downs in the airline industry. Both at mainline and at regionals. When the tide was rising Comair got a really good contract, then it was ACA, then xjt, then air Wisconsin, then xjt again, then horizon. At that point the tide turned. Skywest CERTAINLY would've been up there with their hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. Skywest has been the most profitable regional in history, more so than any of the other ones I just mentioned that each raised the bar when it was their turn. If you don't think that Skywest pilots would've ever gotten a contract that was at least comparable to the top contract, then I don't know what to tell you. And now, almost every single regional is increasing their pilot cost by offering better and better compensation packages. Yet many of them are not even close to the profitability that Skywest currently has. I'm not saying that pilot unions are all powerful at all. Many of them have weak pilots in their MECs leading them. And dispute that, some of them are making gains. Now is the time to use some of that leverage to get up there in the top tier. If you don't think that you can do that with a pilot union at Skywest, then you are saying your pilots are not good enough to achieve it. I personally think they can if they were union. And that would help all the rest of us.
Anyway, of course it would be ideal if there was a single seniority list and one regional pilot Union. But the perfect shouldn't get in the way of the "better than what we have now." It honestly sounds like a convenient excuse to not be for a pilot union. I think it's a cop out since it'll almost certainly ever happen.