And I have heard no rumors of announcements. I suspect WMU pilot is just starting stuff. Nothing will be announced until a TA is made. Ford&Harrison's Union Busting Playbook clearly states no good news during negotiations, only doom and gloom.

 

I've noticed it closer to 16:45, but still, that's about the gist of it.

 

Announcement? Anyone?

 

No announcement. He was screwing with you guys (he even told me so).

 

Are classes scheduled into 2014? More ERJ than CRJ? Are there many DEN or MSP commuters on the ERJ side?

 

Really?.................

 

Of course, you don't expect F&H to give the company all the right answers on day one, then what profit would F&H earn? I wonder, with all the company's complaints on needing to be more cost effective and reducing the cost of block hours, how much of what they waste on union busting would they have been able to reallocate to employee compensation? With that said, had they negotiated in good faith from the beginning, how much sooner would they have been able to come with labor costs for future CPA's? I mean isn't that what they complain about, not being able to bid for contracts because they don't know their labor costs?

 

F&H's playbook is worn and tired. We've seen it all before.

And I'm told their retainer is $1 million+ per year, just for routine matters. Negotiations could quadruple that.

 

I think that it is abundantly clear that the sheer possibility of taking a concessionary contract has angered both the pilot groups of Atlantic Southeast and legacy ExpressJet.

That is no longer the question.

We must ask ourselves what is likely to be SKYW Inc's next move now that we have told them to go (expletive) themselves.


In the SkyWest Inc. earnings conference call of August 7th, Jim Parker, an analyst of Raymond James questioned the profitability of ExpressJet airlines (approximately 21 minutes into the 46 minute call.) Brad Rich responds that ExpressJet had a small operating profit for the 2nd quarter but that the vast majority of Inc.'s profit is from SkyWest Airlines. Basically Brad goes on to say that there are 3 possible solutions to the contract rate issues of ExpressJet:


1. Extend the aircraft at rates back to market rates (most likely through a concessionary contract which the XJT and ASA pilot groups will not accept)


2. Replace existing aircraft with different aircraft types (which we don't likely receive unless we take a concessionary contract)


3. Eliminate flying from the fleet that are performing from subpar contracts.

Option #3 in my mind is the most likely possibility. Why not just let the CPA's that involve unprofitable 50 seat jets expire? Thus the ASA and XJT groups ets smaller and then we are small enough to the point where ASA and XJT can be shut down without severely impacting the major airline partners - we get shutdown.



If you are a holding company that had 2 subsidiaries where one is making almost all of your profit and the other one is dragging you down financially and your efforts to fix the subsidiary are unsuccessful, wouldn't it be in your interest to shut down the unprofitable subsidiary?

I hate our present management and think they must be on (insert favorite narcotic here) by printing out bumper stickers that say "I love ExpressJet" and showing us a video in recurrent on the proper method of lifting and storing our flight cases. But I think that our best option now is to accept a contract that is very similar to SkyWest Airlines in exchange for some clauses in a contract that prevents the ASA, XJT, and SKYW airline pilot groups from being whipsawed from each other. Maybe something that says that all future SkyWest Inc. aircraft orders must be split equally between all 3 groups?

 

I've been saying this for a while now. Anyone who's been paying attention knows management basically gave up on this place about a year ago. They have been totally disengaged. They are hoping for concessions as a last ditch effort. Now that that's tanked, the result is inevitable.

This is where you go wrong. You've already tacitly accepted that a shutdown is inevitable (unless we approve concessions, which you agree won't pass). So it's in our best interests to keep voting down TAs, let the 50 seaters expire, let the company shrink, and go get real flying jobs at a major. Don't you think? Their plan is to shut this place down, regardless, then when it reaches a predetermined size, shutter it and let the remaining pilots apply to SkyWest Mainline (without seniority). So max pay to the last day.

In other news, SKYW stock has been TANKING the last few days! I bet Atkins has personally lost millions (on paper).