EskimoJoe - outstand post! Post of the year award for accuracy right there!
PackRat - you are 100% correct as well sir. Folks who have never spent any time in the bush or even heard of SCC don't understand.
So what does Alaska "Senior Leadership" (as they love to call themselves) listen to? The BOD - and that's about it. They will not make a move that goes against their paradigm / plan / business model unless absolutely brought to their knees by the consequences of their own actions.
Need proof? You need to look no farther than Horizon Air last summer. That disaster last summer was years in the making. The employees saw it coming. The line employees all the way up to mid level management were telling "senior leadership" about the mess that was building for literally years. Senior leadership didn't want to hear it as it did not fit their paradigm / business model - so they just buried their head in the sand. I think the final result was something like $17 million wasted? If they were going to "spend" $17 million one way or the other, I would have preferred they have spent it on the hard working employees of Horizon Air.
Remember our awesome (and unfortunately temporary) SCP who was told to do something impossible in a meeting? When he told them that what they were asking could not be done he was told to "shut up" by BM? Classy senior leadership. They prefer to live in their own world, reality need not apply.
So - the only way to effect change around here is for the entire system to break down - Horizon Air style. If the jets are on the ground, if the entire system melts, then the BOD will take action, and change will slowly come.
There will never be a strike as previously mention by others. We are Alaska. The State of Alaska will not function without us. Way to much money involved in Oil and general services to the bush communities. OTZ, BET, BRW, OME, not to mention all of Southeast will run out of milk and eggs in a few days without us. One or two phone calls from these tribal leaders to the governor and you can forget about a strike.
It's sad but true. The only way to effect change around here is for the entire airline to nearly collapse. Horizon seems to have survived it last summer. Maybe we will survive it to?