I find it absolutely hysterical that any of you think that the EXCO for any airline has the ability to dictate what price the company is going to charge per hour for their aircraft.

Management could give a rat’s ass about what the union says in a situation like this. All they are concerned with is making money.

 

Ghillis, you couldn't be more spot on! Time to rally together and move forward!

 

I find it absolutely hysterical that you think this is what is trying to be accomplished.

This is about a local union's member airlines banding together to tell the CEO's of the airlines that we are not flying your planes for peanuts and we are tired of your tactics to drag us all to the bottom.

We could give a rat's arse what the company charges their customer per hour.

 

Have a wonderful time! Let me know when you are tired of holding your breath!!

 

You seem to be pretty far removed from the process. I'll respect your anonymity, but its pretty easy to naysay from the nosebleed section. I don't know which carrier you fly for, but I spent the past 2 years on the Kalitta Exco hearing things from pilots like you who don't seem to participate or help the pilot group in any way. Your concerns and comments are always welcome but if you don't have proposed solutions to problems, your apathy makes you part of the problem. Its easy to stand back in your position and naysay everyone elses efforts, but I encourage you to either get involved, support your local, or come up with a better solution. Right now all I'm seeing is you trying to throw a grenade in the room, and you don't have much support. It's very disappointing especially seeing youre a CA at your carrier and you should know better. Again, you have a right to say everything youre saying, but youre wishing that this banding together of FOUR of DHL's biggest carriers falls flat on its face is disturbing. I applaud this effort to show solidarity, and I'm optimistic its sending the right message. I don't expect you to "see the light" anytime soon as you are set in your ways and may not have much time left in this industry, but most of us are trying to support a long term solution for proper pay and QOL for the hard work that our pilot groups put in day in and day out. Happy 4th of July to you.

 

Amen brother! The only hope anyone in this industry has is the collective support of each other. It's hard enough to withstand the constant derisive efforts of management, let alone battling each other. It's time to restore some respect to professional pilots. DHL threw away a couple billion dollars with the Wilmington experiment, crew costs are a fraction of that and ultimately are passed on to the customer. Let's not short change ourselves.

 

ghilis101,

Your above post might be the best one I've ever read on APC. Would you mind if I use it, in any number of future threads, on various subjects? Seriously. Great post. Thanks.

And have a great Independence Day.

JJ

 

Ghilis. That was a lovely speech. I would love to live in your utopian world.
Unfortunately, this has little to do with reality. But, what is wrong with believing and having hope? If you are the ABX pilot group, there could be a lot wrong with it.

If we buy into the whole solidarity dream and take a stand, we could be the big losers.

Interesting points. The Kalitta, Atlas, ABX and Southern EXCOs have banded together and set a minimum wage. Why is that number a secret? Are the ABX pilots supposed to refuse offers based on an agreement that we don’t even know? The sentiment here is that ABX should not give up anything because the other groups will refuse to play ball. Really? That has happened before but it is going to be different this time?

Even if a wage floor is set and holds, ABX will still not be competitive because the floor will probably be lower than their current wage. Also, ABX pilots are ALL at the top of their VERY lucrative pay scale. Then add in all the luxury perks that are not related to direct wages.

So who stands to gain in this play? I would say people like ghilis who works for Kallita. By encouraging the ABX pilots to go headlong into this crazy funhouse, Kallita, Southern, and/or Atlas might get more work and even a pay bump. All at ABX’s expense.

There are some ABX pilots who actually believe that they can continue to sell their product for much more than their competitors because they are just that much better than Southern, Atlas or Kallita. They think the DHL operation would collapse without ABX’s dependability. They think ABX is the only thing saving DHL from the disaster of having to rely on Southern, Atlas or Kallita.

 

I'm starting to see the word EXCO pop up in the ATSG threads, what does it stand for? Thanks.

 

3raser, why would some ABX pilots include Atlas in that discussion regarding being a more reliable and superior product? Between Atlas's 74's and 76's, doesn't Atlas already operate about the same number of planes for DHL as ABX with pretty solid reliability?