They still offer ethics as part of a business admin. degree???

It's an elective.. Unfortunately we all know the pinnacle mgmt team won't spend money on anything extra, but will always spend a dollar to save a penny!

George Bush let the Comair pilots strike two months after he took office. Maybe Obama will be that pro-union?

Not that the 2001 strike worked out that well for Comair pilots...

It's not 100% accurate to say that "Bush" let the Comair pilots strike...technically the NMB let the Comair pilots strike, and I'm pretty sure Bush's appointees weren't on the NMB within the first 2 months...pretty sure that was Clinton's carryover NMB that released the Comair pilots...and Read van de Water had strong connections with Northwest (former legal counsel for them) from the day she arrived at the NMB, so there was really no way in hell she was ever going to let 9E be released, killing all that lift for NWA would be a slap in the face to her former pals in NWA mgmt...

There is a seat waiting to be filled on the NMB now...and I'm pretty sure the other 2 mediators terms expire in Dec. of this year also, so '09 is going to see a big change in labor relations regardless of what happens with the economy...

Mesaba was released into a cooling off period in 2004... well into Bushies administration. We also went past the 30th day and could have struck at any moment. I know, I know... a different NMB.

Boys,

I hate to tell you this...but a strike will make an easy decision for the "New Delta" to decide which regional will not be utilized anymore. Ask the NWA mechanics if they got their jobs back. That was only a few years ago, oh I guess most of your 250 hour wonderboys, were back in high school when that happened. NWA let all the mechanics go, and hired replacements for each and everyone of them. In this game of Blackjack, you've got a bad hand dealt to you...put down your poker face.

Your only hope is to do things exactly by the book, fly profile, taxi at a brisk walk, don't do anyone's job except your own. Being the most ontime airline in the USA only gives your management a smile knowing they can get awards for their performance.................without a contract.

Put yourself in their shoes....run the most ontime airline, without a contract? Why settle for a more expensive contract?

You obviously don't work here. It is quite difficult to disturb on time performance when every leg is overblocked by 20 mins. There are very few 250 hour folks here- unfortunately those few have made a big name for themselves. You fail to mention the fact that the "250 hour wonders" happen to be at most regionals. 18 months ago all you needed was a pulse and a commercial multi to be competitive, which is a far cry from competitive now. The company could not hire and train replacement workers for us- different world. We also have 14 days before our flying/airframes can be pulled in the event of a strike. Its clearly written in the service agreement. Not trying to come across mean, just straightening out the facts.

I'd rather shutter down then continue to work under these sub standard conditions. Mechanics are a little different than pilots. You cannot just hire replaces, its about a 2 month delay.

Hopefully management has the fear that if we do strike we'll go out of business. That way they'll give us a contract.

Listen up here....

Whatever you boys do, you better RATTLE THE CAGES OF YOUR MANAGEMENT TEAM. They are worthless. How could they possibly, in their right mind, not want to give you guys a raise. Come on....21/hr for a first officer on a jet aircraft? Where did these guys come from? Sweatshops in India?

They lower the standards of the airline business. Just like Mesa.

Stick together, UNITY my friends.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I read the first post of this thread. In an ethical and merit-based world, you SHOULD expect to be rewarded for making your company the best in on-time performance. But I just think that's a poor assumption and strategy in this case, because we all know the type of mgmt we are dealing with here.