Originally Posted by
NeedAJob
I felt it necessary to register to this forum to make a couple points. First of all, GoJet guys have been hired all over the place, Delta, Air Tran, American (recalled), Continental, Compass, Atlas, Southern, and ABX Air (Airborne Express) where I worked.
After recently being furloughed from ABX Air, I have been hot on the job hunt trying to find somewhere...anywhere to work. Some of the folks posting such nasty things on this thread need to understand this: with the current state of the economy, let alone our industry, we are talking about survival in the hunter gatherer sense of the word. Nobody is talking about raises or improving contracts right now. It is simply survival.
At ABX we recently learned DHL (we are the domestic flight department for DHL with AStar Air Cargo) plans to pull out of the U.S. effectively putting our airline out of business. We're talking about massive job loss in southern Ohio as you may have seen on NBC and other networks. Pilots that were making between 150,000 and 400,000 bucks a year collecting unemployment!
I applaud the union at Trans States for attempting to improve the quality of life for their pilots, and I hope that they are able to survive in the face of their competition at GoJet, and everywhere else for that matter. Survive is all they can hope for at this point; nobody is getting raises this year anywhere! Having said that, I defer to my original remark, we are looking at survival in the hunter gatherer sense of the word. GoJet is one of the few places still hiring, and growing! That's about enough to sell any guy that has been out of work for a while. It is a J.O.B. and it's better than working at Wal-Mart (who isn't hiring in my hometown). Some posts I have read refer to trying to "hold the bar", and "improve quality of life", and that's reasonable enough. However, that fight is going to be pretty darn tough for a couple years until things get better. When things improve, pick up the ax and start swinging. Until then, my advice is to hunker down in a safe place and weather the storm. GoJet may just be that safe place for many many furloughed pilots given they're actually hiring and growing right now.
By the way, Nobody at the majors I know has ever heard of GoJet. Guys at Airborne certainly haven't.
As you said, continue to collect unemployment, it's certainly a lot more than what you will make first year at GJ if indeed you were making 100k+ money at your previous job. No need to "hang out for the storm to pass" at a scab operation. As far as publicity, most know in the regional level as well as the alpa majors, and just like you have found out, more are hearing about them everyday. Also you might want to check your info on some of the airlines, one guy at Airtran said no GJ has ever been hired there. I'm sure a select few have made it to reputable places but some will fall though the cracks. Either way you do not want to be subject to the treatment you will get from fellow regional pilots even if you were once at a reputable major, why would you want to do that to yourself?