Mr. Bauer has a long list. I can't hope to address them, as they are all in the past, and I wasn't here. We can only move forward and make it better. Naturally, learning the past is important, so as to learn from whatever mistakes were made, so I thank him for documenting what he has.

I've been at the game long enough to know that whatever alphabet soup letters are running the show, there will be the bell curve of 10% who hate it, 10% who love it, and 80% who really don't care.

SAPA has limitations, clearly, but some advantages that aren't in a typical union / company relationship.

Pay wise, let's face it, all the regionals at the first year level are fighting for scraps. Even many of the majors are the same. But, compared to the regional industry pay wise overall, SkyWest is doing fine. I'd like to see us on the top for everything, heck, any employee would like to see their company there.

Is SAPA at least partially to blame / credit for that? Sure. I'm familiar with what many ALPA carriers suffered through with 30% pay cuts (and calling it a success 'cuz it wasn't 45%). SAPA / SkyWest didn't do that.

Never a furlough, no pay cuts. That's big, considering the hardships of the industry.

So, the big complaints, pay wise, seem to be the E120 guys didn't get a pay raise, and the jets did (albiet, tiny). We plan to re-address those issues, but as you know, nothing can be done during the union drive. I'm not confident anything can be done to specifically changing the amount we're paid hourly until the end of the current agreement (2011, I think).

Listen, I've got a lot to absorb to speak confidently on specific SAPA issues, but I'll get there.

Thanks for asking.