I wish that would give me more confidence. Although just a couple bucks raise would be a relatively huge percentage increase for me. That's how it will be spun I'm sure.

The fact that we have to negotiate instead of them giving us a nice raise is what worries me. I figured by the letters they sent out that they would play nice and take care of us. It is too early to start saying bad things since we haven't seen the pay proposal they voted down or the one that we are going to vote on. From what I understand, we'll see it pretty soon!

How does an all reserve base work? If there is no flying actually assigned to the base, what do they cover -- pilots coming through who get sick enroute, DH to other bases to cover open time? I'm confused. Thanks.

LAX and SFO are UAL hubs, so a great many SKW UAX flights operate of those airports. SKW (for several reasons) has found it convenient to base the pilots who support those hubs at outstations...that way they are in position to start their day with the early-am flight for pax who need to get to a hub to make a connection. That way SKW doesn't have to get hotels at the outstations.

The reserves are there mostly to cover duty time-outs or mx repo flights, although they could get DH'ed to an outstation for a sick call (the outstations have their own reserves however). Also if you're in the middle of a trip and get sick, most folks will try to make it back to a pilot base before they call in sick (if possible).

I want to understand how pay negotiations go at Skywest (being non-union).
How often are you guys able to negotiate pay increases? Does this happen every year, or at a set time interval, or only when management says they feel like increasing pay? What happens if the membership votes down a pay proposal? Do they go back to the bargaining table?
Can any Skywest pilots can jump in and let me know how pay changes work at Skywest.
Thanks.

From what I gather after the first meeting with SAPA they were offered pay that exceeded ASA's TA but SAPA said you can still do better than that. I choose to look at this as a half glass full situation. Mngmt did take care of us but sapa is trying to do the same for once. To me the fact that sapa did not just say "thank you so much forth generous pay increase" and go on with there merry way is a good sign to me.

Younger and Younger? Come on, I'm 28 and grew up with He-Man. I'd hardly call myself young compared to the pokemon generation coming out of college.

I have no idea what was offered, so I ASSUMED it wasn't very good if SAPA turned it down. I will take your word for it and have a glass of Koolaid poured by Wavit that the company and SAPA are in the process of taking care of us.

As for the pay negotiations...

I started last September and was around for the last pay proposal. It came out in response to us taking the 700 flying for United and keeping the same pay rates, temporarily. Apparently, we were awarded the United flying in 2004? and didn't receive the 700 override pay until November 2006. SAPA approved the company pay proposal and sent it out to the pilots for vote. It passed 55% -
45%. That pay scale was valid until 2010. I guess we would negotiate a new pay scale in 2010?

I think that since we voted down the union, they are listening to our wants and concerns. They said repeatedly that they didn't want to deal with a middle man (ALPA) regarding our pay and QOL. So now they are sticking to their words. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if the pilots voted NO. Currently, our representation is negotiating some additions in work rules and a pay increase.

I, like 65% of other pilots at SkyWest, trust that our management will do the right thing. Our president always is thankful and sincere in his letters to SkyWest employees. I met him briefly in ORD and he seemed like a down to earth guy. Not like the Glenn Tiltons of the world who thrive on power. We should have something in the next couple of weeks to be voted on. The company wants to get it done before January 1st.

SAPA is having their monthly meetings today and tomorrow, and the heavy hitters are supposed to be there to answer questions. Anything that comes out I will post here.

To my recollection, He-man was popular in 1985. I was 5 and got tons of that stuff for Christmas. The good ol' days...

I like you Koolaid HOPE that what this means is that The company and SAPA are taking care of us. Hope is the key word there. Right now I am drinking the Koolaid right along with you. If proven wrong that Koolaid will leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Koolaid! Me too :-)