Originally Posted by
FlameNSky
Parker is definitely worse than Arpey or Horton. But that and his relationship with AA/APA is hardly the point. Parker is a glorified accountant. His decisions concerning the flow and flying allocated to envoy is all about the numbers and whipsaw negotiation tactics. Parker will make the flow work because its a cheapest alternative recruitment tool. envoy will eventually offer increased financial incentive to attract new hires, it will never be as much as companies like RAH, TSA and SKYW will have to offer. Its saves him money so he will MAKE it work.
I don't see Parker as better or worse then his predecessors, he's pretty much the same. The primary difference here and now IMO, is that his predecessors showed little interest in the labor/product association whereas Parker claimed he did. He stated that he thought AA's biggest obstacle (or something to that effect) was its poor labor relations and so he set himself up when he promised to make that a priority of correction and then failed to deliver or at least has failed so far. When the rank and file see that occur, it tends to make one look worse then your predecessors not by comparison. I understand your opinion on what Parker thinks of the flow and yes, I agree you are correct in that it serves the best purpose for stabilization of AAG's feed while solutions to the problem are devised long-term. But IMO, Envoy's flow as it stands now is simply a short-term situation in present form to clean up and put to bed an arbitral albatross and once that is gone, more significant alterations in the AAG feed network will occur balancing out this mechanism. Thus, the belief that Envoy will remain a superior entity to other AAG WO's in the future is misguided. Let's face it, many present Envoy pilots DO feel Envoy is superior to other regionals and have stated so here and elsewhere. This is a delusion that simply reinforces desirable ideals about what the future is for Envoy in relation to that which is supposedly inferior to it, even non-AAG regionals.
Your comments above bely just that sentiment.
Originally Posted by
FlameNSky
The stabilization of envoy's fleet has nothing to do with Parker being a good person or being happy with our cost structure. In fact he has very openly discussed his regional contract strategy. Lowest bidder gets the contract but if their performance numbers fall, they will lose it. The only reason that flying is stabilizing/coming back to envoy is because it lowest bidder contractor over estimated their abilities to staff the contracts that were under bid during a scarce pilot marketplace. In any case, AAG and envoy's management's plans have changed and the contraction and stagnation that have haunted envoy pilots since 2011 have stopped. A normal person would be happy that some positive things are happening for his former coworkers. Then again, narcissists don't usually identify themselves as part of a group, because its all about them, isn't it.
Don't look now, but there you go again throwing rocks with your "narcissist" claims......and you wonder why the rocks come flying back at you, yet.
You were doing so well at not poisoning a nice discussion, too.
Oh well. Anyhoo, what you discuss is likely to be temporary, but it's more useful to muddy that up for more flexibility in the future and not simultaneously and unnecessarily startle the snakes slithering in that particular patch of grass. The lowest bidder paradigm is indeed the driver and once the 824 are cleared out, all that will remain at Envoy that needs to be corrected to ensure Envoy's equality is a few hundred lifers on 18-year scale and a 12/4 pay scale. Rest assured that will come and Envoy will almost certainly contract to approximately balance the growth that will be seen in the other WO's over time to have 3 equal carriers with identical pilot labor costs and flow-thru's, absent consolidation, of course.
Is it coincidence AAG has withheld Envoy's flying allocation for 2016 past March ?
You'd think that if your blind claim that Envoy can only grow and has no risk of over-estimating its OWN abilities (which you seem all to eager to do) in the future, AAG would have more confidence in making commitments to it beyond a few months. They haven't and there's a reason for that. I think the reason is that Envoy is not going to be what you think it will in a year or two and if it's not, any claims of X upgrade or Y flow are indeed pie-in-the-sky optimistic projections or as I believe it was you who said "suggestions". I'm happy many patient Envoy pilots are flowing and things like that ARE good, but just because most of the feedback I get from sources INSIDE Envoy don't paint a rosy picture there and I question claims that don't add up to me and I acknowledge that doesn't mean I'm narcissistic, nor have an ax to grind.