Originally Posted by Omniscient

Spoken like someone who has 1.5 years into this career....

Not even close to how it works. The NMB does not care HOW you get to an agreement, they are there to facilitate as a mediator to an agreement. They cant dictate "this is the ratio you will use..."

So let me ask..you regional gig, Compass, offers signing bonuses. How much did the pilots have to give back in their contract with concessions to pay for those signing bonuses? Nothing, right? The signing bonuses are a factor of getting butts like yours, in the right seats of those sweet sweet 175s. It wasn't the responsibility of the pilots to negotiate something away, to get those bonuses done. The company had to do it for staffing.

So at Spirit, I wanted the NC to get a livable wage for first year and then a nice bump for second year. Is that what we got, yup. As been said, much higher than the last contract (and the contract before that as well). Guys who want to work here but live in high cost of living states like California, sorry. Thats the choice when you live in a high cost of living state, those views and nice weather days have a cost.

If the NC came in and wanted more for 1st year, more than what they got, they would have taken it from another area, this is clear as clear can be and has been explained over and over again by the MEC. When the NC wanted to close the industry leading pay slope in longevity, they got some, but not all. It all has a cost.

So when it comes down to it, I would rather see the extra money go to say 5th year CA pay vs 1st year FO pay. I would rather see it go to 2nd year FO pay, 3rd year FO pay etc....guys with skin in the game and are here to make it a career and not a place holder while their A320 type rating ink is drying on their resume for Delta.

If you are someone who can only focus on 1st year pay for a career job, then what can I say, I dont trust your decision making at that point and rather not have you aboard anyways. Tough talk, yup, but it's true.

If the company needs to fill FO classes and the hourly rate isnt cutting it, they need to get a signing bonus or better yet offer a MOU to the union to raise pay. We still have some big holes to fix in the contract and increasing FO pay to $90/hr, so Spirit can staff that next order, isnt priority one as far as im concerned.

For those who think we wont hire "safe" pilots at our current rate...all speculation and assumptions. Airlines all around pay a lot less than we do and still manage to not ball up planes into mountains. So where as its a nice talking point, there is nothing to show that a pilot making $60k a year for their first year is going to be a safety issue, just as a $38hr pilot 3 years ago wasn't crashing planes. Just as you, a Compass pilot who makes regional FO wages, hasn't crashed yet.