VX undercut who slugger? AS? Have you even looked at a vx ticket price? Do some homework, get your facts right before you jump on a high horse. I swear you guys are so far up your own ass it is unbelievable. VX achieved more in 10 years than AS did in 85. Your contract is absolutely comical, and VX pilots have YOU and pilots like you to thank. No concrete work rules? We are losing work rules under your CBA!!!!! If VX pilots are a hair above scabs, what are the AS pilots that voted scope away? You are a pathetic human being and I don't even know you. It is sad...

 

Virgin America was a LCC. Low Cost Carrier=undercutting. Enough said. Your boy screwed up by overcharging pax hence your airline wasn't profitable. VX achieved more in 10 years than.....is that why your boy decided to ditch your beloved airline? Achieving means profits and thriving in business. VX didn't turn a profit until the very end, which was minuscule. VX was acquired and went bye bye-dead! You can achieve all you want but doesn't matter when you are history. The last man standing wins. Work rules include retirement, pay, and over all compensation. True, many of the our scheduling work rules were gutted during Kasher (before my time) but you are only referring to your scheduling/bidding rules when you are talking about work rules, right? Alaska pilots never voted away scope because we never had concrete scope. Get the facts straight. You decided work for a start up low cost airline and do as Branson said. You didn't have a contract and you had zero protection. Indeed, you chose to work for a company that under cut the rest of the industry so yes, you are a hair above a scab.

 

Wasn't binding arbitration during a merger or acquisition a byproduct of the Kasher award in 2005? That's where everything was gutted. As much as you want to blame every AS pilot for a sub par contract, their very will to continue to fight for better rather than roll over and accept the company offer was a gamble that didn't pay off at the time.

 

It is so cute how you lack even the most basic understanding of finance and business. My "boy" I assume you mean Branson? You realize he wasn't a majority shareholder right? He didn't choose to sell the airline, the majority shareholders did. Again, I ask you, please do some reading and homework so you can actually add value to a conversation without making BS up as you go, it makes you look ridiculous. AS fares are lower than VX in most competing markets, so what does that make AS? An ULCC? Please, show me where they undercut AS or any other airline for that matter. Show me a market that VX entered and undercut every airline that served that market, and drove them out due to ticket prices, I'll wait...

 

Please list these achievements...

 

What part of word LCC do you not understand? LCCs exist to undercut except your boy and the BOD couldn't gage the market correctly, ending up in demise. They wanted to play like SWA and set an image that they are hip and cheap except they went into markets that were already too saturated and were in over their heads. In essence, you answered your own question in your last uneducated comment.
Alaska may not play nice with its employees but they know how to run a business and turn a high profit. You give yourself way too much credit for your intelligence, or lack there of. I was hired by FedEx, SWA, jetBlue, and Virgin, who hires anyone with a heart beat (I digress) but chose to come to Alaska for various reasons. I did my homework, which you apparently didn't do. Yes, I understand that a foreign company cannot be the majority shareholder. It's common knowledge that you seem to uphold as if you are the only one in the know. Your boy isn't stupid but you seem to be very gullible. You do know that Branson made out like a bandit on this deal, right? He played you guys as if he didn't want any part of this deal. No CEO or businessmen truly care about their people. They put on a smiley face and tell you how much they care but it's a ploy to get you to bring home the bacon for them. It's the same in the military as well. Employees are always the pawns and he played you guys like a banjo. So genius, you got anything else for me before I go to work?

 

You're right about everything except the very last line. They weren't/aren't comparable to scabs. Scab is a term for only one kind of person...someone who will willingly cross your picket line to take your job.

Save the scab term for those who earn it by their actions. There are still plenty of real scabs floating around the industry. Some employed in the most unusual places.

 

I don't think Work was talking about ticket prices, Jetlife. He was talking about VX undercutting Union airlines pay/benefits for 9 plus years. That put downward pressure on the wages/benefits of all the other airlines.

Remember, Alaska's lawyers tried HARD to strangle VX in the crib. They were the leaders in attempting to get your certificate revoked based on foreign ownership. That forced the big Dick to diversify his ownership through various shill "partners." Just because you made a profit the last year of independence doesn't make up for the tidal wave of red ink you had before that.

AS management turned out to be the biggest suckers in the whole deal overpaying by a factor of 3 for a bunch of leased Airbii and the threat of B6 jumping on the West Coast. B6 wouldn't even be ON the West Coast if the geniuses at Angle Lake hadn't abandoned the Jet A slots at LGB.

No matter how the SLI goes down people are going to be upset. You just have to try to get along. There are still guys on the property who are upset over the Jet A merger and that was 1987. The thing to consider is how many Jet A pilots ended up on the 2nd floor. Things that make you go "Hmmm...."

 

I think a true Virgin with eloquent scripture needs to step up to the plate and lay down the facts on all of the history of Virgin America from the head to the anus. There seems to be many uninformed Alaskan’s on here that do not know the true inside story.

 

I think the same needs to be done for the AS side with regard to what happened after the Kasher award and why the contract is in the state it is. There seems to be just as many uninformed VXers that continue to blame all AS pilots for the current contract. Remember, once something is taken from you, ie, pensions, work rules etc. it’s very hard, if not impossible, to gain them back.