I think this pilot explains our picketing actions well...




If I may set this record straight, it was the sweat and labor of every Express Airlines I, Inc., now Pinnacle Airlines, pilot that bore the "fruits" they speak of.

Those pilots made this airline run when management was, and still is, intent on doing as little as they can get away with.

Not a single employee group, from CEO, to upper management, to middle management, to general admin staff, to mechanic, to aircraft cleaner, does their job to the best of their abilities at this company. All of those employee groups come to work, punch the clock, take their breaks, do some work, and go home at exactly when the clock strikes 5 (or whatever time their shift ends) regardless if their work is complete, let alone completed well.

Pilots (and possibly Flight Attendants) are the only labor group(s) who attempt to do their job to the best of their ability. They are the only employee group who go out of their way on a daily basis to get the flight out and completed safely.

The rest of this company comes to work, does as little as they can possibly get away with, then they go home, ON TIME. No extensions, no junior manning. If their work is not complete, the get to go home anyway. If our work is not complete, we have to stay until it is done. Tell me what employee group stays at work until their job is done?

And so the fruits they speak up were of our (pilots) making. We made this airline run all these years when every one else was just coming to work.

SO........When NWA filed for bankruptcy protection, Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. had a claim against NWA in that bankruptcy for $377.5 million. Pinnacle, in an effort to get quick cash, sold a portion of that claim for cash, $283.3 million in cash. (Form 8-K on 29-Jan-2007) That cash was sent up to Pinnacle Corp.

Just 16 days later, Pinnacle Corp. announced that they had entered into a “capacity purchase agreement” with Continental Airlines utilizing “Pinnacle's wholly owned subsidiary, Colgan Air, Inc.” to operate 15 Bombardier Q-400’s. Unlike other capacity purchase agreements which a mainline company purchases the aircraft and leases it to the operator, in this one, Pinnacle Corp. is actually making the purchase (not lease) of the aircraft from Bombardier. (Form 8-K on 08 Feb-2007 )

Now, where did Pinnacle Corp. get the money to enter into a purchase agreement of 15 Q-400? From Pinnacle Inc. All the work we did over the past 9 years to make this airline successful was passed up to holding company and down to Colgan in the form of 15 74-seat aircraft.

I do not mean to take away from the hard work associated with bringing an new aircraft on the property, hard work performed by our fellow employees at Colgan, however, that opportunity wouldn’t be available if it were not for those of us over here at Pinnacle Inc

Who ever wrote that letter knows this fact dam well and choose to spin it in an effort to obscure the truth.
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