Originally Posted by
Dacuj
I'm not arguing semantics. I'm just stating facts as I know they were presented to the union at that time as I was a volunteer and had access to most of the information.
Originally Posted by ORDinary
You've responded a couple of times to others while ignoring my response to the above. Do you not have an answer? Why were the 12/4 important enough to threaten liquidation of the whole airline over it?
It wasn't the 12/4 that liquidation was threatened over. It was pay scale above 12 and overall rates. The company knows that 12/4 will never even be touched by either CA or FO due to the fact of the amped up flow.
Semantics. We were threatened with liquidation if we didn't agree to management demands for pay cuts during a time of record profits. Spin that any way you like, it doesn't change that underlying fact.
The 16 year contract and it's associated pay rates were one of the few things that made life bearable at Envoy for the "lost decade" after 9/11. Senior pilots that had never intended to spend their careers at a "regional" were at least able to approach mainline wages and afford to send their kids to college like they had hoped. Those 18 year pay rates were an insurance policy for those of us in the middle of the seniority list should another 9/11 scale event occur. If management was so sure the flow would be successful, then the 12/4 demand was simply another way to kick us should we be down again.
And I am not management. I'm just a line pilot that has a great interest in seeing Envoy succeed. If Envoy succeeds, we all do. Ultimately, it's about the flow right? That's what we all want to happen and if we keep bringing the new hires in, well, that will happen.
The company of Envoy succeeding, and it's employees succeeding on a personal and professional level are two, totally separate goalposts.
Envoy being able to staff those shiny 175's to max utilization and controllable completion factor, while blaming crew cancellations on weather is management's day-to-day priority. They have to SHOW Parker's cabal that they can do the job better than the next ****ty regional.
HOW that job gets done is of no concern to them. The manager of crew scheduling's attitude is but one of many indicators of this. Who cares of they attempt to violate the contract six ways to Sunday to see what they can get away with, those pilots still have the flow, right? Who cares if these pilots are missing funerals, weddings, or other important events in their lives, they still have the flow, right? You can see the ridiculousness of that argument when carried to it's logical extension. This idea that we should agree to indentured servitude because "one day things will finally get better" is nothing more than a carrot dangling from a stick that is taped to our backs by managers that don't value us as employees or human beings.
As the CRJ's start to transfer to PSA, that will free up more wiggle room to allow the flow to continue unabated. That's the whole goal and I'm sure you want to flow as well. Just be patient. Things have turned around and you'll be at AA before you know it.
Carrot, twine, stick, tape, new-hire. Some assembly required.