Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
SkyWest Captains top out at $119, for example. $114 might be considered within the "standard" range now, but that rate isn't for four more years. In 2021, everyone would be laughing at Mesa's $114 Captain pay.
The new Captain pay scale is around $2 more per hour, and a little more than that for 79-seat CRJ's. It's true FO's get a good bump to $36 starting, but then DOS+2 inexplicably decreases by $5. WTF?
Other than that, the agreement is chock full of "at company discretion" and other soft language that invalidates giant chunks of text. There are good parts but they're largely negated by onerous restrictions (only 17% of reservists get to be on long call, for instance).
Once we've all had time to pour through its cracks and holes, I'd love to get everyone else's impression, but my initial impression is a No Vote. This is not industry standard and voting for it would be a major disservice to the profession.
^^^^^^^. THIS. ^^^^^^^^
With pay being the overriding issue (and the one that mgt has always been most resistant toward), this is where we should be taking the hardest look. Notice that the bullets that have items which directly relate to additional money IN YOUR PAYCHECK (pay rates and per-diem, for example) have only marginal increases. It's great that a 2nd year FO can now obtain a higher company matching on his 401K. But, how many of them can even contribute to a 401K when they're still only going to make around $40K per year, half of which will be eaten up by lousy, overpriced health insurance, uniforms, union dues, taxes, etc? For those guys, who will still be struggling to feed a family on 20K take-home, 401K contributions are no longer a concern, let alone an option. Don't think mgt doesn't realize these types of areas, where it sounds like a nice offering to everyone, but not all people will financially benefit. They understand that these offerings won't actually cost them much. The one that does, however is PAY, because it applies universally. And, no surprise, that's also where this TA continues to fall short.
For the first time in Mesa's history, the pilots actually have an ability to bargain from a position of power. Not to use that would be foolish considering what they've been forced to endure, and still would be, if mgt weren't seeing an even more desperate situation on the horizon. I say vote this weak TA down and DEMAND a more acceptable contract.