Pinnacle....Past, Present and Future.
 

The past has been great as a pilot group without a contract we still where able to become the best performing airline in these United States of America. Our MEC has fought a tough battle with a management that will not reward us for making them shine to their Major airline partners. They have been rewarded by getting countless bonus on the sweat of the pilot group. Now as if thats not enough they are about to displace 30 CA's as a ploy to toy with the union into a sub-standard contract. They offered a Leave of Absence to CA and I personally know of 10 CA's in one base(MEM) that signed up for it. The Numbers came back strong and management decides not to pursue that course. Is it not better to let the hard working man and women of 9E take the LOA then displace the 30 CA's that would most likely want to stay in their current position. I found it odd that we got the "thanks but no thanks" message from EF regarding the LOA. ( if I am missing something here, can anyone at 9E who has a better understanding of that rather untactful move fill me in?) Our future at 9E hinges on us getting decent contract to sweat over and performance. As far as I know the Pilots still do their all in making sure that we meet goals set for us by the same people that stab us in the back and will not agree to give us a what we are asking for. Economic times are turn and that will be the company's next excuse. We were able to ride out the high gas price wave and we should be able to ride out the next set of waves. finally, will this new administration even come to our rescue?

I'm not a pinnacle person but here are my two cents any way. I think once Obama, and his administration, get into office your MEC will make a hard push to be released, and they will probably succeed. Obama has often said that he is pro-union, and I think his administration will give you the chance at self-help. Now, that being said, if through this Pinnacle Management somehow comes to their wits, and gives you a contract, instead of running your company into the ground, things will be looking up at pinnacle. A contract has been long overdue.I think that once you do get the contract you will get the 17 -200's that Mesaba is currently operating (15 of which were pncl airplanes) and things at pinnacle will become much better than they are currently.

Now will any of this happen? Maybe, maybe not, but its just my guess...

I still think its all a ploy, especially with the new administration. Screwing the pilots is all the company can do. Once we DO get a contract we will need even more pilots. We need those 30 CA's to stay CA's and we need 30 more FO's from the pool. Thats the numbers as they play. For me to get a JM phone call during a non-weather day (in any hub) and a non-holiday when there are 500 FO's under me shows that this circus needs a better ringleader. The smoke machine for smoke and mirrors is about to get turned off. Since it is very obvious who I am I won't trash talk, but those involved in the displacement and the unprofessional nature of a crew message instead of a memo or even open talks with the union to work out something shows that this company and those in mgmt that happen to own epaulets are not folks I will give any public praise to. I can't even type the words I want to say cause it would only come out as ---- ---.

This was a conversation I had we scheduling last week:

--
Me: Just out of curiousity why are you folks Junior Assigning so much lately?

Them: We are WAAAAY understaffed. We just don't have enough pilots.

Me: Then why did they cancel the last two FO classes and why aren't we hiring?

Them: Hang on let me ask the supervisor... (pause)... She says, "Because the folks in admin say we're overstaffed." (followed by laughter all over the room)
--

It will be interesting to see the marketing hours on the Feb & March bid packets.

They tried to extend me two days ago, and my phone just got done ringing for a JM..lol...no help from me

like hingney they would have to call some 400 FO"s to call me..

my phone rang yesterday and today for JMs and i'm 400 up the list or so. Crewtrac already shows me flying 95 hours by the end of this month just with my awarded schedule... wth

Extensions.....DENIED
JMs..............IGNORED
Beer.............DELICIOUS

Pinnacle Airlines Checklist Complete.

I like how they asked FA's in December to take leaves in Feb, yet they had a FA class Dec 16......staffing model my butt

Sounds like Pncl management is letting the monkey do all the numbers without someone with any sense doublecheck the figures. 2 and 2 is just not adding up. Folks out there are having 30/7 issues in the left seat. Uncle Phil is it really a good idea to go trim 30 CA's that ur airplanes need to get of the ground while all the other CA's are already flying to the to the limit?? I dont really care to know where our management got the Business degree's, they surely missed a few lessons or skipped class on the wrong day!!

they played hookey during the "ethics" courses....

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.

Our Management has been able to get away without having a contract and still have the best performance ontime airline, any rewards would be considered a major expense and a contract..by god will be corporate suicide. "Just string the pilots for as long as we can, merger them with 9L then maybe start talking about a contract"

Heard the Feb marketing hours decreased slightly, 300hrs or so, is this correct?

Also heard rumors of March decreasing by 3,000hrs. Is that purely speculation, or actually backed up by some info/intel? When will the March bid packets come out?

Anyone care to speculate the chances of a successful contract negotiation the week of 1/26? (50% chance, slim, nil, etc.)

questions, questions, questions...

Feb hours are the same as january, march are supposed to be down. I seriously doubt contract will ever be done after just listeinng to this company conference call. SOme of the hightlights of it were that there were going to be furloughs in every department which they should annonce more on later today. No growth in 2009, 120 million due in feb 2010, no 401k match for non pilot employees starting in march for at least a year. Opportunity for growth in 2011 or 2012... Going to be a rough year folks!

Here's a new juicy rumor from peeps in training: MORE CA displacements around June of this year...not sure if they meant announced then or active then.

Just a theory: Company knows new NMB will be coming online later this year. Now would be the most opportune time to play serious hardball>>>Downgrade, furlough, threaten...THEN, bogus contract offer...sign this and we will grow like ChiaPets! Only the pilots can save us! Sign baby Sign if you want to fly! Sign here to keep your jobs and those of your friends! And, it will work to some degree. Here's the thing: If they can't pay us commiserate with industry, then they cannot manage a successful company and either the board will boot em, or we walk and let the chips fall after release later this year.

Appreciate the info, hopefully Pinnacle does not get added to the list of airlines with furloughed pilots

not looking good

i am not getting to worked up over this for several reasons.

first it not worth my energy

second if you read the letter clive wrote he said they are asking people to take loa's long and short term. what he failed to mention is that all the pilots that put in for an loa were denied. so i guess they dont want the pilots taking time off.

third the only furlough he mentioned was pinnacle "people" to the amount of about 50. I think they still know they are short on fo's, and come march even if there are a reduction of hours will still be short on captains.

We are really short on fo's however. my phone rings off the hook on my 20 days off trying to get me to help them out. all they say on the phone is this flight will cancel if you dont do it.

Best bullet point from the slideshow that went with the conference call...

"Our excess cash is tied up in illquid investments sold to us by wall street banks.
- We expect to get our money back, but we don't know when."

You gotta love these guys, just pass the buck, blame someone else. This management never seems to want to take responsibility for anything even the least bit negative.

"Let em cancel the flights" they have a pool of FO's and they could resume hiring. The LOA they took was a joke... it seemed more like a poll to see how many pilots would be interested. When the numbers came back against their odds. They stopped it right in its track. Our management needs to be replaced. If PNCL Corp's board of Directors eventually comes to their senses, then firing the top five manager's would be a big turn arround for the company. Furloughing 50 janitors is not the answer Clive!! Just to have the ready reserve pilots clean the restrooms!!

February hours are 300ish less than January; however, that's still more flying in Feb. vs Jan. February has 3 less days in it.

The 3,000 hour reduction in March is purely speculation/rumor and while many on this board enjoy feeling like they know what they're talking about - nobody has legitimate information.

As far as the negotiations on 1/26 I'm just waiting for the "no progress was made" union email again. That's the only speculation you can historically call accurate.

If they want the pilot group to help save the company money then I say we just for a while. Apparently being the industry's lowest paid CRJ pilots with the highest pilot group utilization simply wasn't good enough for ole "Simply the Best."

What do you expect coming from Memphis? Rhodes Scholars?

Actually I know of at least 3 that were granted the leave. But it's a last minute, Pinnacle style jerk them around until the last minute with no info on benefits kind of thing. What I think is total BS is that they "survey" for LOA that they put out said very clearly it was not official, it was solely to get an idea of who may be interested. So I was going to wait for the official version then get my few weeks off, not that it would proably matter anyways.

If by displacing 30CA's to FO's they are thinking that all of us are going to stick around, they are badly mistaken. From talking with several other of the displaced guys, we will be looking to leave 9E. I've already got one foot out the door and I know several other guys do as well. Pinnacle's MIS-management is in for a rude awakening in negotiations if they think the pilot group is going to give them an inch. More and more I'm hearing STFD. I agree, STFD if they dont want to give a hard working pilot group a fair contract.

Do I hear another GO Jets being born:rolleyes:


Disclaimer: purely comical don't take it to heart

That's asking a lot!

Please keep profanity off the forums in the future, thanks. Thread closed.