It doesn't help that the company sends out bi-polar messages about the state of negotiations, and the union does a cryptic facebook video once every few weeks. There is almost no communication from either side about what is going on, what the plan is, or anything else.

 

That's because there is no plan. Andrew asks, company says no, Andrew pitches a fit, company laughs, Andrew puts out a cryptic video, company brags to investors what a great job they're doing holding the line. Wash rinse repeat. By this time next year there won't be a pilot shortage. Maury ain't no dummy.

 

I guess Maury is smarter than the CEOs and e-boards of UPS, AA, UA who decided to make a deal this year. Then again....

 

UA’s contract expired over 3.5 years ago and AA’s was over 2.5 years ago. We haven’t even hit the 1 year mark of contract expiration.

 

Duration of negotiations has no bearing on if it’s the right time to strike a deal… As many have said Maury’s not stupid, and I’d argue right now, is more right for G4 than it is for any other airbus operator. Expect big progress by the end of July or early Aug.

folks who say we’ve only been in negotiations for a year, are the same ones who say regional FOs only deserve $25 an hour because they paid their dues so everyone else should too.

times change, this not the same industry, or environment. Even the company knows that and has put more money out the door than they ever have because of it.

 

In the last 25 years no other 121 airline has had a TA in under 2 years, I'd call that a direct correlation. Regardless, it's not the right time at all based on management's viewpoint. I would expect some progress to keep dangling the carrot and slow attrition, it will be enough to provide hope to those that keep thinking a contract is right around the corner but unfortunately just a couple years of stalling is a 7 figure difference in legacy opportunity cost if you're under 45.

Look at the facts, we have lost 69 pilots since the beginning of the year and hired 118. This nets +49 on the list and the number of classes have just increased to 2 per month for most months going forward so growth will be increasing assuming new hires keep showing up. If you do the math that attrition cost roughly 12 million a year to replace @ 70k a training cycle (2 per CA leaving). Guess what a 40% or 50% raise raise with a new contract would cost vs replacing attrition? It's significantly more, a conservative estimate would be 7 times more while factoring in lost revenue from cancelled flights (which will subside).

That's an odd correlation to make between those two. What we deserve, what we want and what we are worth is not synonymous with the facts of the situation (see above) and the decisions management has made and will make.

Unfortunately this is not true, see above. It would cost more to pay our list what we are worth, their solution has been to keep increasing hiring classes, increase TA hopium and outpace attrition. Also don't ignore that every economist is expecting a 99% percent chance of a recession and mngt has always been conservative with increasing cost during times of uncertainty. Unfortunately they will continue to enjoy their 50% pilot labor discount at our expense.

 

How many of those hired this year are online? You lose a pilot immediately when they quit, it takes 3 months to train a pilot.

Losing a pilot today to somewhere else won't be replaced by a newhire until after the summer peak is over.

 

I'm also not in recruiting/training but are we getting adequate pilots? How many have multiple training failures or other issues that would make them unhirable elsewhere? Obviously a great hire because they can't leave until they eat training resources like a fat kit or screw up on the line and damage an airplane.

It's all fun and good cost savings until you need to give a new hire 25 sims.

 

Quality of new hires is dramatically lower imho. My guess is a lot of pencil whipping going on. Clear and a million & climbing through 1000’ I see the radar scanning on their side. The list goes on…

 

As someone hired relatively recently I don’t think this is a fair assessment based on a majority of other people I encountered during training. It’s also not supported by the fact that several people in my class alone have already gone on to legacy carriers. And there are plenty of us who came here for the bases/lifestyle, and are giving the company until the Fall to get serious or we’ll be on our way too.

Regarding the example you used, it may be because use of the radar is barely even discussed in training (along with MANY other things) and we rely on experienced captains to give us some guidance :-)