Originally Posted by
duvie
...this regional flying arena is a zero sum game. If you get more flying, it will be at my expense and vice-versa. That is simply business, its neither good nor bad, it just is, so why bemoan it? Try checking out some Ayn Rand, it helped me a great deal.
I tried explaining the logic in these first two sentences to those (including SKWers) who excoriated Mesa pilots for causing the Aloha collapse.
What on earth did Ayn Rand help you with? I remain amazed at the number of people willing to base a political and economic philosophy on some of the worst fiction ever excreted.
Originally Posted by
EmbraerFlyer
I just hate it when people take it out on a pilot group though....Dont take out your anger and fustration on the pilots..
So, when SKWers start bashing other pilot groups, such as referring to Mesa pilots as "bottom-feeders", are you the voice of maturity and benevolence?
Originally Posted by
duvie
...there seem to be some huge misconceptions about SkyWest. And I'll reiterate that we're paid a better wage than most of the union regional carriers out there.
...why don't you get frustrated with unionized pilot groups that agree to pay rates and work rules that are below ours? With the ALPA name on them, they're "keeping the bar lower" than SkyWest ever has. The SkyWest business model has always depended on fielding higher than average employees....I just don't have much respect for people's arguments and rationale when they call me scum, proceed then to insist that their's is the only way of thinking, whilst they work for less money than I do. Its not a jab, it just doesn't compute for me.
I think you make too much of the pay difference. At DEN a SKW FO was eager to share how he made more money than I. We crunched numbers and the difference was about $170.00 a month. I told him that I felt that his smugness was not justified by barely enough money to cover my cable TV and internet bill.
"Above average employees?" At one of my bases, SKW folks served as gate agents and rampers. They used to tee-hee together about being really unkind to customers that were not going to make their connections due to weather. Once a superviser asked a lady to postpone her meal break in order to help the ticket counter with a rush of customers...she burst into tears.
You object to the invective words directed at SKW pilots. Some of this is due to your non-union status. I would not name-call because I think more flies are attracted with sugar. I do believe that it is a mistake for SKW pilots to remain non-union and that all pilots are a bit weaker for it. The pay and benefits that you are so proud of result from management having to match the pay and benefits achieved by unionized pilot groups at other companies. Do you believe that if your union divisions down the hall achieve gains, management will let its non-union children lag behind?
Some of the venom coming your way is the result of the demeanor and attitude of many of your peers. If a pilot was rude, chose not to return my cheery "Good Morning!", and avoided eye contact, odds were he was wearing the SKW epaulets of gold. I problably would have been grumpy too, pewter looks better.
SKW has done well at instilling loyalty and morale. When you look below the surface, I think you find that Mesa is not as bad as you think and SKW is not as good.
The Dash Whisperer