Originally Posted by
wt932051
I am already voting no. Mesa was in no hurry, so I am in no hurry now. They could have given us a contract a while back. Now when the company needs it to keep getting pilots, guess what, I don't need it so much. I can wait a bit longer. However if the company really needs it, then lets get a pretty nice bonus added to it. Management got one exiting bankruptcy so where was ours?
Oh yeah, apparently Mesa has money to give, they are going to give 500 a month toward the loans for all future ATP new hires that we hire after telling our union they didn't have any money. Where is my 500 a month? Funny I don't see how you can pay someone outside of the labor contract also. Isn't that illegal?
I made the mistake of being moralistic instead of pragmatic at my last airline. Guess what? We spent a decade fighting for stupid things like tiny increases in deadhead pay, tiny improvements in scheduling language, bumping up 2nd year FO pay and arguing over signing bonuses and duration. Shot down multiple modest increases in pay/QOL, LOAs for pay increases/new hire bonuses, and at least one TA with marginal improvements.
Guess what? Under pressure from the NMB, we finally got the deal we deserved...and less than 1.5 years later the company went to the bankruptcy courts and eliminated every single gain, and capped the FO payscale at 4 years.
You will never get back all the pay you deserve, or even a fraction of the pay you deserve. You will never achieve significant increases in pay at a regional airline unless the NMB is fixed (or a national seniority list is created). The game is rigged, and if you try to play hardball, you're going to lose (your job).
Be pragmatic. If we can lock in some small increases that improve QOL and avoid pushing the company into a sham bankruptcy, I will vote for it 100%.