I never made a comparison between the TSA contract and Skywest contract. If reading comprehension were made a priority in your schooling, you would realize what I was saying.

1) No I don't envy Skywest.
2) Yes, we should be paying attention to all other companies especially the big ones. You guessed it, Skywest is in this category.
3) I agreed that our contract is crappy and wages need to come up to at least industry standard but we have a union with leverage that is working on that problem.

I hope my post clear this time.

 

Read between the lines, you sure did compare Trans States and SkyWest.

 

Aww jeeze.....

 

The reason I use TSA/Mesa mainly (I also mentioned skyway, comair, asa, and eagle) is because a HUGE number of SkyWest pilots came from these carriers that in general haven't had a "win" with ALPA in some time. I would venture a guess that VERY few former Xjet, Horizon, and Republic pilots find themselves in SkyWest uniforms and therefore they aren't voting at SkyWest. I'm just trying to let everyone else on here see where SkyWest pilots mindset is, and I'm trying to come up with an alternative way of convincing the 15-16% you need that it's a good idea. Simply telling us that we have more leverage than everyone else, won't convince anyone. Hopefully the tides will start changing in favor of labor, and the next time a union drive happens at SkyWest we may very well see it succeed. Until then I'm afraid that too many SkyWest pilots, former ALPA members themselves, feel that ALPA hasn't spoken for them (the junior RJ pilot) and don't want them at SkyWest.

 

I think some people need to get past this idea that ALPA is some group of hired goons that, once voted on property, go to company HQ and start busting knee caps with tire irons and setting right all the wrongs that have been suffered.

If you are a pilot, YOU are ALPA. ALPA national is a resource for you to use, but YOUR MEC, made up of YOUR pilots is the part of ALPA that makes or breaks YOU as a pilot group. Weak pilot group = weak MEC. Strong, unified pilot group = strong MEC. One reason XJT, Eagle, and Horizon have such great contracts is that there are enough pilots that are there for the long haul that have a vested interest in making those airlines the best place they can be. At airlines like TSA and Mesa that have such high turnover, its hard to get enough people to stick around long enough to get on the same page. I mean christ, Horizon has arguably one of the worst unions for airline pilots (Teamsters) yet their contract is head and shoulders above everyone else. Its not because of who issues their union cards, its because the pilot group is united and willing to fight for what they think they deserve.

 

Its that mindset Im talking about as well. Mesa, TSA, etc all have separate issues and degrees of success that their respective union can or cannot use as leverage. Its a mindset that people have an entitlement mentality that a union will shelter them from the realities of the situation. Look at it this way, would places like Mesa and TSA be better without their respective unions? This is the mindset these people who are now at Skywest should think about. And then you add the fact that the situation they find themselves at Skywest is ripe for leverage because of their enormous and continuous success if only they had ability to force management into real good faith bargaining.

That is a big part of it but you also have to take into consideration the financial health of each property. Lets face it, if you have a management group that has a faulty business plan and the company is being driven into the ground, there isn't much ANY union can do. But if you have a company who has been successful for 35 years, has more than $700 million in the bank and probably going to make $150 million last year, there is a lot a union can do to get management to compansate the pilots just a little bit more.

 

[quote=Nevets;315772]Its that mindset Im talking about as well. Mesa, TSA, etc all have separate issues and degrees of success that their respective union can or cannot use as leverage. Its a mindset that people have an entitlement mentality that a union will shelter them from the realities of the situation. Look at it this way, would places like Mesa and TSA be better without their respective unions? This is the mindset these people who are now at Skywest should think about. And then you add the fact that the situation they find themselves at Skywest is ripe for leverage because of their enormous and continuous success if only they had ability to force management into real good faith bargaining.
quote]

I'm just trying to suggest an alternative approach, but apparently you either don't agree or don't understand what I'm getting at. The reason I say this is because, we've heard those very same arguements you've been presenting on this board, and those arguements didn't persuade enough SkyWest pilots. Continuing with the same lines will probably fail again next time around. I'm merely suggesting that the pro union pilots at SkyWest, and any pilot at a different carrier that wishes a union to exist here, may have to look at it from a different angle.

 

Nevets - Ya'll that are preaching the graces of ALPA to SkyWest Pilots really should think up a new approach...the way you've been going at it, let's just say that ya'll made a great career choice in straying from the practice of law. Seriously!

 

This is why I envy SkyWest. This is a SkyWest flight, isnt it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_BQk_2Zd04&NR=1

 

Holy crap, Susabelle. It seems like about half your posts consist of you having to explain a previous post to somebody who "didn't get it." Have you ever considered that maybe it's your lack of writing skills, and not their lack of reading skills, that's causing a problem?