17 December 2019
In the most recent Corporate Communication sent out by the company, the first sentence claims, "As you all already know, it is an exciting time of growth here at ExpressJet." Your MEC is unclear where the company sees growth or excitement at ExpressJet. Growth would infer that our operation is getting larger, yet that is not what we have seen.
In terms of fleet growth, ExpressJet was operating approximately 85 ERJ 145s at the beginning of the year with the plan to bring on board the 25 E175SCs. We are now operating 23 175s and about 65 145s, which does not indicate growth. In terms of pilot group growth, the number of pilots at XJT continues to shrink. Since our sale from SkyWest, and despite all of the pilots the company hired in 2019, we have fewer pilots on our seniority list today than we did at the beginning of 2019.
Now, let's talk about what our pilot group and your MEC would find exciting. We would consider pilots wanting to come to XJT because of career progression, competitive wages, and quality of life to be exciting. If we were experiencing exciting times, the company would not be seeking assistance from its employees to help XJT recruit. These tactics are old, don't work, and the management team that continually tries to employ them has made it clear they are not willing to make necessary changes to this airline's operations.
As you have already heard, mechanics are also now part of the company's new referral program. This is because our management refuses to do what is right for our mechanic work force. Attached, you will find a letter from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters refuting the legality of the company's new bonus program for mechanics.
It is clear our company is having significant problems recruiting pilots and other employees. That is no surprise as XJT is simply not an attractive place to work right now. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We all have personal accounts of the sacrifices we have made for this company individually and as a pilot collective. Unfortunately, it seems that our pilots are nothing more than a cog in the XJT machine.
Let's be clear, line pilots are the absolute most valuable recruiters for an airline. When a pilot tells another pilot that he/she likes his/her carrier, that speaks volumes. A temporary bonus structure is no replacement to a productive relationship with its employee groups. We have told our management that we would love to have a cooperative relationship instead of the one they have purposefully created. Apparently, they are not interested.