Great! (sarcasm)

 

May 31, 2008

Greetings fellow pilots,

At 1744 EDT Friday evening our Vice President of Operations, Jeff Carlson, sent facsimile copies of three certified letters to ALPA President Capt. John Prater. These letters were notices pursuant to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN). Spirit Airlines gave the minimum required legal notice of potential base closings in LGA and SJU, and of a potential reduction in base size in FLL. Capt. Creed, upon hearing of the notices, spoke directly with Ben Baldanza. Ben indicated Spirit would be finalizing decisions concerning these bases in the next week, and merely wanted to have the legal notification in play for that eventuality.

Under the WARN Act the Company is required to provide an accurate number of those employees who could be affected by these types of decisions. Spirit has indicated 242 pilots are exposed to displacement or furlough. We hope their plan includes the growth of other bases but it’s hard to imagine the economic benefit of such realignment in these times of cost control.

Your MEC was not warned of these letters, and these letters represent a significant departure from the “State of the Industry” address Carlson, Lancelot, and Baldanza presented to us a short, 10 days ago.

If this is a tactic to win concessions or undermine our resolve in negotiations, then shame on Spirit. If however, this is a sign of the times, and the future, then the hard-working Spirit pilot who:

1. Saved this company after 9/11;

2. Made the fleet transition as smooth and inexpensive as possible;

3. Kept Spirit safe in the expansion into Central and South America;

4. Has sacrificed financially to provide the growth opportunities and the record low CASM Spirit now enjoys;

should have as much advance warning as possible of ANY potential furloughs. We will also work closely with ALPA National’s Strategic Preparedness and Strike Committee to formulate plans to protect our pilots against any potential outcome of these letters.

We will keep you updated on the situation as it develops. We encourage you, as always, to FLY SAFE, and FLY OUR CONTRACT.

 

Welcome to the suck.

 

pure speculation/sucking

 

Nothing else said so far, and any speculation is just that - speculation. More facts to be delivered at the end of next week.[/QUOTE]

More speculation or real facts? Please tell NJ?

 

Best of luck, I have good friends at Spirit!

 

More speculation or real facts? Please tell NJ?[/quote]

Touche, Breckster, but not much we can do at this point except sit back and see how deep the stinger is.

 

What is an "ALPA Email Committee"?

 

[QUOTE=Touche, Breckster, but not much we can do at this point except sit back and see how deep the stinger is.[/QUOTE]

Are you part of the "stinger" or one of us "stingies" my friend...

Heard Ben's contract was not renewed? Any truth about that?

I guess we are finding out how this "shinning star" is going to read... hopefully it has a few more chapters in it

 

The way I read it, it looks like there will be some furloughs, but not ALL 242. Just that 242 pilots will be effected (affected?). That means, the newly upgraded guys/girls will go back to the right seat, the LGA/SJU pilots will have to go back to FLL, etc.
Either way you slice it, it SUCKS. I'll probably be joining you guys on the streets come fall, with UAL parking 30 A/C.
Just living the dream!