False. I'm furloughed from a Part 135, but thanks for assuming you know me.

I'm not defending PSA. I understand it may sound like I am. Just trying to look at the big picture.

 

The "big picture" is PSA pilots, by a large margin, voted in a concessionary contract. Their contract was not even due for renegotiation, and every other pilot group has voted NO to any concessions, in an attempt to finally stop managements continual efforts to lower the pay and benefits for the profession!

 

The well educated haters hate the fact that majority of PSA pilots voted in concessions for job security and pay cap. The whining clueless keyboard warriors say PSA have crappy pay and contract when in reality, PSA pilots probably make more than most other regionals except horizon, awac and possibly expressjet. And no you shouldn't go by the apc pay scale. Our contract is fine but just sucks we couldn't hold the line.

 

Fixed it for ya........

 

The actual pass rate since October is 80.24% and treading higher with every class. That's a fact.

The IOE times are in line with 2005 and 2006 IOE times. There has been 2 that needed significant extra IOE and the company was willing to give it to them.

Not enough sims? We would like to have one more so PSA has another one coming that will be up and running August 11th in the US Airways training Center in CLT.

Not enough Check Airman? That was true 2 months ago but that has been corrected. Currently hiring and training Check Airmen for the new sim.

Our recruiters are under strict orders not to to promise anything when it comes to upgrade time. We will lose an average of 4 pilots per month to USA Airways. We lose 2 to 4 a month to other airlines. We are adding 30 CRJ 900's there is an option for 40 more. You can do the math. That is the only thing anyone in recruiting or training is authorized to say.

This is a great place to work with some of the best quality of life provisions in any contract.

 

Those may be correct, I think It'd be close. Lets assume they are though.

There's about 15 regional airlines out there. I didn't count Great Lakes. If you can only name 4 who have better pay than PSA what exactly is the issue?

I hate that AAG put us in the position to take concessions but we are still in the top 5ish, so top 30% of our industry section even after taking concessions. People lose things all the time to better their long term position. AAG gave up slots in DCA and JFK, professional sports teams give up top players for prospects.

Our vote obviously didn't effect or influence other votes since 3 other airlines voted no even after PSA voted yes. In fact, I'd wager that if we had voted no things would've turned out differently. We are much smaller than eagle. If we had voted no AAG could've immediately started a drawdown. We only have 47 acft. If that had happened it would've put a lot more teeth behind AAG's threat to shut Eagle down as well. Something to think about.

 

Honest question, I read a lot of people here defending PSA and its current contract saying how much money you make and how things are good because of upwards progression, pay, QOL, security, etc, etc. If that's all true why does management want to break the contract of other regional's, and the model being PSA and/or Pinnacle? Management specifically uses the names of the those two companies in how they want to arrange and model our contracts to mirror yours.

Now it's obvious why they all want the costs of Pinnacle, but PSA is mentioned in the same breath. The reason why Envoy is having the problems they are having is because of the cost structure PSA has, due to the contract you recently voted in. That comes right from management and our MEC. I would argue that Envoy captains make was much as anyone at PSA or elsewhere especially when scheduling is offering 1.5 on a regular basis, not to mention the unblocking of all OT for FO's and captians.

I'm not trying to start a whole new war between PSA and Envoy, but if your contract is NOT concessionary why would management want to make our contracts like yours? And to tell you the truth I don't know a lot about your contract so I really am asking a serious question.

 

No one has anything like we have in the entire industry. They literally had NO CLUE how much our scheduling section was going to cost them last summer when the negotiations for our most recent TA were getting started. It's not just pay either. They'll need more staff.

They are just now realizing what kind of cost this thing really is.

When management across the industry look at PSA's "cost structure" they see one thing: Pay caps.

They are blind to everything else because they are convinced that this is the holy grail that is going to save the regional model. In the case of Pinnacle they may have something. Not so with PSA.

Email your negotiators and tell them to get a copy and paste of PSA's scheduling section. I bet it's a non-starter.

 

So basically what you're saying is that the scheduling section of your contract was/is unaccounted for during negotiations and is still unaccounted for with management. Hence the reason your contract is not concessionary. But if you guys are doing so well with it, can't you foresee management making changes to it for their benefit. I believe AAG management has proven they will change things at their will only for a union to later grieve which takes months and years to resolve (at least at Eagle that's how it works).

So take away that section your contract would otherwise be concessionary and which is why they want to mirror your contract (without the scheduling section) for all other regional's. Would that be correct?

If I'm not mistaken, you guys have incremental increase YOY in insurance costs and pay caps. Which is to say each year you take a hit in pay and when the music stops in hiring, or someone gets stuck at PSA, they begin to lose money every year because of the pay cap. Would that also be correct?

 

I'm sure envoy or other decent regional pilots can make as much if not more due to the premium pay during your days off. The only saving grace in our contract is the scheduling section like pagey mentioned. We don't need to work on our days off to get premium pay. We just drop a 4 day trip and pick it back up and get 1.5 pay with same amount of days off as our original award. Or you can have 16-17 days off for the month if you need a break.