Originally Posted by
gringo
The regionals pay more first year for one reason and one reason only.
They have no choice.
Our classes are full and there’s a line out the door. So clearly management does not see a burning need to improve first year pay.
And frankly, we have more important issues that need to be addressed with our limited negotiating capital during the next round of negotiations.
I agree with the NC. First year pay is a management function, not the union.
Would I love to see a higher first year pay? Of course. Everyone here would.
Am I willing to give up negotiating capital for it instead of, say, Calendar Day rigs? Or redeye override? Or removing the “international destinations” limitation?
Nope. And neither would anyone else already on property.
I’m not going to mention negotiating specifics here but I wouldn’t say anyone already here doesn’t find first year pay and health care as a priority. I do.
I want to fly with the best, not the legacy leftovers. We hire many great guys but if you can’t see that we hire many guys that simply cannot get hired at a legacy or southwest then you aren’t paying attention. Maybe it’s a bachelors degree or total time or something else.
Add in the fact that with the bypass rate for upgrade is quite high today we can have CA that spent one year at a regional and is upgrading here in just more than two years. Now that guy is flying with a new hire that came here with only one year of regional experience or corporate. That has led to a big uptick in FOQA events. That’s factual.
While for many Spirit is their first choice for some it’s not and it’s simply where they can get hired. That’s a side effect of low first year pay, training pay, no health insurance, no positive space home during training. You may think that’s the company’s responsibility but they will always say pilots meet and exceed FAA standards if something bad happens. We know there is a difference.
I personally also like going to ATL/ORD/LAX/LGA with someone that has been there a bunch prior to spirit and can talk on the radio like it’s old hat instead of spending 30 seconds writing it down and now the controller is calling us back and then we read it back wrong and they have to correct us, or they flip us off ground in ATL instead of running ramp on 2 and now ground us calling us but we can’t here them. Just makes the trip harder than it needs to be. So IMO raising first year pay does have direct and passive effects on those already here