Originally Posted by flapshalfspeed

Wait, what's the point of even negotiating (or hearing from the negotiating committee)?

Negotiations at this airline--with this ALPA chapter--seem pretty pointless to me: why would Mesa ever give us a penny more than what we're getting now, when we're still covering the vast majority of our flights on-time, and when new hire classes are (miraculously) mostly full?

As long as n00bs keep coming to the trough to feed on the slop, there's no reason to put more slop in the trough, am-i-rite?

Zero, zero, zero reason for Mesa to give us a penny more as long as new hires keep showing up in decent numbers, and as long as our MEC turns a blind eye to new-hire iPad payments/crashpad reimbursements, referral bonuses, no-stay hotel reimbursements, etc. (which they will). Our MEC has basically said "Status Quo? Section 6? Lawsuits? Uhhhhh...that's kind of complicated I'm going to go home now and eat a sandwich--bye" (door closes in ALPA office).

The average Mesa pilot will gladly stay in horrible hotels, gladly taxi single-engine, gladly pick up tons of open time, and gladly roast the pax in 30+C heat to save fuel for daddy UAL/AA--who pay us a fraction of their payrates to fill up their widebodies with pax, indirectly subsidizing their own pilots'/employees paychecks.

The present global seniority list here has absolutely zero comprehension of how the average regional ALPA chapter typically functions to block any changes to wages & work rules during an open Section 6 negotiation--particularly when it comes to a company offering money to new hires/referrals in lieu of increasing compensation across-the-board in a new TA.

Put simply, the average pilot here is here out of self-interest and self-interest only, and a decent percentage of FOs I fly with are very delusional in their projections of upgrade times and/or ability to make it to a legacy and/or background/record/skills w.r.t. moving on to a legacy/LCC.

With that said, Mesa's pilot cadre is kind of like Silicon Valley/Law School/Investment Banks/America in general at the moment--100% of us think we're going to be the ~1-10% who actually make it out of this thing on top, with a secure future/retirement. But a majority of us will very likely end up being Mesa lifers/furloughs/downgrades/etc. at some point in this cycle or the next.

None of the above is meant to bash on Mesa, or our pilot group, or our our management. I actually really like our chief pilots and hands-off management culture. Just stating a cynical, impersonal opinion on what I feel is a slightly delusional cult of career positivity that seems to be infecting the ranks of many regional pilot groups, particularly the junior end of this pilot group...sigh.