If you think the company will not downgrade CA's you are sorely mistaken. 8 years ago they downgraded 30 CA's. And every one of them had to go back through upgrade again. And we were being told at the time we would all be upgrading in a year after hire. So don't think for one second that things cannot get bad enough for downgrades.

 

surely you cant be talking about psa? we never broke 1210.

 

He is talking about Envoy.

 

I hope you do realize that anything they do for one, the other 2 WO's are going to magically get as well. Hiring bonus? same. 121 bonus? same. Pay? basically same. Ipads? Same. Cadet Program? Same.

The days of a WO being different are over and it is going to be harder and harder to look appealing to NH's when all are basically copies of one another. Bases and aircraft are going to be about the only thing each are going to have keeping the WO's different.

 

In that case PSA might as well close their doors now. I think the majority of new pilots will take a E-170/5 in a commutable hub base over a CRJ-200 in Dayton any day of the week. Just look at Mesa, they are getting more new pilots than PSA and about the only thing they have that is better is the bases.

 

My guess is the the next thing the company will have to look at is commuting. When you are competing for pilots, its not realistic to think that they all won't have a problem living in Dayton or Knoxville. When you are competing, that means you are casting your net to the widest group possible, and that means commuting pilots.

Two leg commutes are difficult to compete with, its an all day affair. Small towns with no realistic living accommodations don't work either.

There is a rope around this companies neck in this regard, its not even clear if they see it or not.

Most of my predictions come true and in this case here is what I see in the future. For pilots commuting to Charlotte, single occupancy hotels provided in Charlotte like other contract airlines, and then company provided deadhead from Charlotte to Dayton, Knoxville, and Cincinatti.

I'm sure union people watch this website, my advice to you would be to look very carefully at improving deadhead language in your ongoing discussions as a priority.

Next item, the 200s. They're gone.

Whether or not PSA was the premier carrier everyone wanted to go to or not, there is no future for the 200s now (at any airline). Heck, they'll need 900's on 200 routes just to dead head crews around the system. A turning point has been reach, the seniority list has held steady for a solid year now with new hires replacing the attrition. That can no longer be sustained.

Again, if the union is listening which I'm sure they are, its now also time to look at the blended rates language and start moving towards a payscale that favors larger airplanes more strongly.

I think we are going to see shrinkage at PSA and all other regionals in 2016, its time to figure out what to do to get on top of it. That's not a reflection on PSA or any other airline, its simply a sign of the times.

My advice to the union would be this- stop chasing all the grievances, they have you chasing your tails around. Look forward on these issues noted above. Tell the pilot group officially that fly it and grieve it is no longer the recommended path, the union will support you when saying no to clear violations of the contract.

Some pilots may need to be dealt with in the parking lot.

Union people- enough of the bullsh|t already. Who holds all the cards here...

 

So you would have your union advocate for costly improvements that only favor one portion of the pilot group? How much negotiating capital should they expend on that at the cost of other items? Like it or not, commuting is a choice, just as moving to base is a choice. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the company's choice of bases makes it harder for them to recruit, but trying to get the company to agree to a bunch of costly gains at the expense of other pilots on the list is a non-starter.

You do realize that as 200s go away our pay rates automatically go up, right? It's not a lot, but that's how the blended rate already works.

And once again you choose to display your vast and comprehensive knowledge of labor law. Thanks for that.

You're absolutely right, we have a lot of things working in our favor right now, too many to run off half cocked and do stupid things like violating Federal labor law or having blanket parties in the parking lot.

 

Well-stated, FirstClass.

On a slightly different topic, for years I've heard how bad the Mesa contract is but I've never taken the time to look for details of their contract here on APC. Well, this morning I took a look at it. Do yourself a favor and look at it. It's AWFUL!!

Here's my point; the fact that Mesa continues to outperform PSA in attracting new hire pilots, given the abomination of a contract that they have,....... says something about PSA!

I don't know if it's one particular thing that makes Mesa more attractive to new hires, or if it's a combination of things, or if it's simply that pis$ed-off PSA pilots have been doing a great job of discouraging new hires from coming to PSA. But PSA management had better figure it out FAST! And dare I suggest that they grow a pair and start standing up to Dougie, ...... instead of joining him in his "group-think", circle-jerk sessions.

When we begin to hear about individual PSA management members leaving PSA to "pursue other interests",..... we'll know it's time for us to bail out as well.

 

I think a retention bonus of 10K paid out to all employees over 1 year is a good start. To be revisited in 6 months to see if continuing past 1 year is something the company is open to. FO pay starting at $35 /hour and a $10K sign on bonus would likely help with staffing this place. FO payscale to top out at $45 /hour year 4. $35, $40, $43, $45. Those should be the FO pay rates. I could care less about commuter hotels (although they would be nice) or paid employee parking at a home airport (although that would be nice as well). And they can keep their profit sharing for all I care. And their flow. Unless the flow is 10+ /month who even really cares? And we all know it isn't getting there anytime soon if ever. It's pretty simple, fix the pay and the pilots will come. Not in the numbers we were seeing in late 2014 and early 2015, but they will come.

 

Ok, so we found one guy on the union...

Commuting may be a choice, but let's deal with reality here. You have to stop the bleeding first.

Yes of course I realize the pay rates go up when 200's leave. But lets get on top of it now before it happens.

Yeah, I'm ok with running off half cocked too. Do something instead of sitting on your thumbs.