Pinnacle Pilots:

I can sympathize with you. Your management is going to blame this on you, even though it is their failure. We at Comair played this same game just a year or two ago while we were in contract negotiations, however ours was under the threat of bankruptcy and an 1113 process to have our contract tossed. When we lost 30+ airplanes and even more through a sham RFP that stripped us of 16 CRJ 700s, it did not help our contract situation. We, the pilots, were blamed for that and the company spun it in a way that made the rest of the employee groups hate us.

Please know that this is not the pilots fault, as much as your management probably will tell you it is. It is their failure, however, unfortunately YOU will pay the ultimate price with your quality of life, or jobs, for THEIR failure. You have done all you can in flying from Point A to Point B as safely as possible. It is management's responsibility to staff the airline properly, have the aircraft in good working condition and provide crews with the tools they need to operate safely, and if at all possible, on time.

If, ultimately, you see ASA or Comair or Skywest or Shuttle America flying airplanes on routes that you used to fly, do not blame the pilots flying those airplanes. Vent all of your frustration towards your management and toward Delta management. Those pilots have just as much control over that flying as you did.

Someone once told me that "The best friend that an airline pilot has is another airline pilot." I happen to agree with that statement. Management, however, knows this and often tries to exploit that notion and divide pilot groups amongst each other by "whipsawing" one group against another. If we allow this to happen, then they have ultimately won.

Good luck to all of you at Pinnacle and all of us in the industry.