Originally Posted by
Is offline
And who is going to fund that? You think SkyWest is going to pay SAPA to get certified by the NLRB? It cost to negotiate even after you're certified and would cost way more than anyone is willing to put up.
This exactly... Just some basic numbers:
3800 pilots at SkyWest. We'll say 3000 join whatever in house thing we certify.
Next we'll assume average wage between FOs and CAs is $75,000 (way on the high side)
2% of $75,000 is $1500
$1500 x 3000 pilots is $4.5 million
How long do you think $4.5 in capital is going to last when it comes to employing all the people needed to properly negotiate a contract? Mind you all $4.5 million won't be there upfront.
Now add in the cost of litigating one wrongful employment case. Now two... Skywest could kill the whole thing by making an example of just a couple pilots. As much as I would love to start from nothing and go it alone, financially it would be a disaster. Failure from undercapitalization.
Not saying ALPA is the automatic choice but joining an existing union umbrella like them is the only realistic option here. We don't have enough pilots and we don't make enough money to fund the startup costs. Short of Herb Kelleher showing up and paying for our start up costs (like he did for SWAPA) it's just not a very realistic option to go it alone. We'll need help.