Every once in a while the good guys win. Way to go Don for never giving in! For those younger guys who think they are immune from this ever happening, think again. Don, never in his wildest dreams thought this would happen to him. All it takes is to get on one ****ed off managers bad side that is having a bad day and you are the whipping boy. Don had an impecable flying career of 16 years. SIXTEEN YEARS without so much as a hicup in his training and never a disciplinary problem. Not one. Then after getting in the cross hairs of one out of contol cheif pilot his career is very nearly ruined. It can happen to anyone. Ive seen the most ardent anti alpa folks do a 180 that realize even with thier butt kissing they arent completely immune. Get smart. Get protected.

By the way DON WAS ANTI-UNION. Guess where he stands on the issue now?! It only takes one event. Alot of guys here arent trained to do anything but fly planes. Even with a degree, with no experience in the business world or MBA you are pretty much starting in the mail room. With the pilot records sharing act and how it has morphed into something it was not intended for (disciplinary info being mailed to all prospective employers) your career is almost certainly toast or at the least set back by ten years should something like this happen to you. Don is around 50 years old. His carreer would have ended had he not had the resources to fight this. Over 30 guys/gals have been fired from skywest over the last two years, moreso than any other similar carrier. Many didnt have the resources to fight like Don. Something like this, without support sucks the life out of the pilot (no sleep, no money, family trauma up to and including divorce) to the point he cant hardly even say what he wants to say in the event he ever does have the chance to try to defend himself in front of a bunch of people who are probably already hedged going with the manager. What about Sapa, please look at this case. Its not a far flung, made up scenario. It happend and a pilot was unfairly fired. Sapa actually hurt this guys case. Once again, folks just like when you fly, hope for the best but contingency plan and buy some insurance for the worst!

I've been here just over a year, and I've heard of precisely zero. So who are these "over 30" people? They are all pilots? Who were they, where were they based, and what were the reasons for being fired? How long have you been at Skywest?

I've been at skywest for ten years. You? Regarding the over 30 people who have been fired over the last two years contact Russ J, the sapa disciplinary rep. He posted the stats on the sapa message boards a week or so ago. He also contacted many of the other regionals who have Alpa. Skywest by itself has in the last two years fired almost as many as all the others combined. These are facts. Contact Russ or you can try to downplay and say "these guys deserved it or that there is some mysterious reason why Skywests hiring process produces more bad apples than Alpa carriers". Certainly its not because of rouge cheif pilots like Fizer and a weak organization in Sapa to protect the pilot. If you are heavily anti union you will not even want to consider that because it flys in the face of skywests perfect benevolent ways.

Does anyone have the stats from sapa to post?

hahaa,, that is kinda funny,, being at skywest for a year and you think you know all the going on's??? man i don't even work there but i know someone who was fired from there.. he was a capt on the bro in sbp,, wife was sick, asked for time off, denied, couldn't get the fmla paper work together fast enough, missed a couple trips, terminated.. end of story.

i didn't say i knew everything, nor in fact anything, that's why i was asking for specifics. that's ok, he didn't read my message very carefully either. anyway, if everyone has the sapa info, they should post it all here. again, i'd be interested to read it. i can't get on the sapa forums and never bothered to go through the hassle of having them fix it.

You miss a couple of trips anywhere and you're toast.

yes but i bet he would have his job back today if he had a union to back him up and tell the company that they were out of line by not giving him an extension to get his fmla paperwork in. like H= 9 * (SQRT P) said, don't you think its interesting that skywest has fired more people than most of the other regionals combined??? without union protection you have nothing... and in a career where termination literally can mean the termination of your career,, i will gladly pay my 2%.

Does the fact that SKYW is larger than most of the other regionals combined have any bearing on this fact?