OK, I lied. Two more questions:

1) I ran a search for commutair in the forums but it came up with mostly "commuter clause" stuff. If there is a link someone could share to the current CBA at C5 or the full language for the proposed LOA that would be great.

if not...

2) Does C5 do block or better, min credit for work days, cancellation pay etc...

 

Block or better, minimum 3 hours of pay for a work day, 100% cancellation pay. Reserves get paid by the day: minimum 4 hours a day or flight time, whichever is higher.

 

Well duh!
Of course it's to retain those already on the property and to attract new hires.
No one thinks it's because TPTB suddenly decided to lessen the hardship of low wages for the pilots. These are not negotiations...theyre a gift (no matter how reluctantly given)
This is one of the
few times in history where a few nails have some consideration from the hammers.
I suspect it will be a short lived period.

 

I remember back in the day when Colgan Air was family owned, senator Colgan would give every employee at the company $50 on his birthday. Considering how many people worked there at the time, that was a big chunk of change to hand over and was completely voluntary. It was a nice gesture and probably paid dividends by reducing bogus sick calls and ridiculous write ups from the disgruntled employees who were out to stick it to the man.

This is the kind of thing that's severely lacking in the industry today and is one of the most important ground rules to a successful business. Look after your employees, look after your customers, and be consistent.
The regional airlines consistently upset their employees and customers.

Sure, offering more money to keep employees leaving is more of a business decision than a spread the wealth gesture, but who cares! Its a smart move in my opinion. Instead of targeting the young an naïve with a "come and fly a brand new aircraft" advertisement like one regional is trying to sell, how about offering a bit more money to attract the talent? I personally think its a clever move by CommutAir, and I would recommend anyone looking at getting into the regional industry for the first time, give them serious consideration.
One of the highest 1st year pay rates coupled with a short, if any, stint on reserve, followed by a quick upgrade with a contact that's not too bad in comparison. SJS aside, why wouldn't you go there?

 

I think is not a clever move , they did not have a choice.
They had to increas pay to stay in business.

 

Just to clarify, I'm about 8 months in and still on reserve, reserve next month as well. Expect lots and lots of airport reserve, I've had regular (2 hour callout) maybe 3 times. Upgrades will probably be closer to three years than two. Still quick by comparison, but it's not the nearly instant upgrade that some suggest.

For my perspective, if this doesn't attract new hires it's going to a very interesting time around here in short order. Yes, first year is fantastic, far better than anywhere else save Horizon. 2nd year is roughly on par, 3rd year is meh. Captain pay is still about $15 less than just about any RJ operator.

Sure, it's a turboprop you say, but SkyWest has way better rates for a turboprop with less seats than the Dash for the same mainline partner. Other regionals out there have similar upgrade times in jet equipment. We still don't know what our domiciles will be come the summer. IAD and EWR are most likely staying, but they could disappear as well. CLE guys, especially FOs, have been bailing left and right.

All that said, we've got a fantastic group of airmen around here that are fun to fly with. Although this is my first experience working in a unionized carrier, our union volunteers have consistently gone above and beyond to make this a better place to work. There is a real camaraderie here that is further solidified by the shared experience of freezing one's hindquarters off in the winter, and sweating uncontrollably in the summer.

There are a lot of positives to working here, to be sure. Only you can look at the industry as a whole and decide is C5 is the place you want to be. Does this new agreement make it a better place? Absolutely, ten times over. This company has officially bent over backwards for commuters. There is now no punative action for missing your commute so long as you have two options to get to work with adequate seats 24 hours prior. I can't think of any other airline, regional, LCC, Major, or Legacy that has agreed to contractual provisions to purchase hotel rooms for commuters in base. Those hotel rooms are also provided if you have a night or day off in base between trips.

Is it enough to encourage more new hires, and stem the FO exodus currently happening? Personally, I'm not convinced. I could be wrong, and no doubt others will disagree with me. I'm good with that.

 

Does C5 have cancellation and premium pay? How about min day pay for reserves and line holders?

 

If this LOA passes, your first year FOs will be making more than Silver's third year FOs. We're looking forward to y'all passing this and raising the bar for everyone.

 

Totally anecdotal and unscientific, but I've run into a lot of no voters. There seem to be a lot if Captains who don't think it's enough. We'll see.

 

Do pilots on property less than a year get to vote for this LOA?