While my personal opinion is hardly representative of "Skywest pilots in general" here are my personal thoughts:

1. The term "union" is a tough sell at Skywest because the pilots have a good working relationship with St. George.

2. My personal opinion is that when keeping the big picture in mind the pilots here are treated very well by management and in return the large majority of the pilots treat management well in return by doing the best professional job they can when they show up for work.

3. People can say what they want about SAPA being powerless, however, I think they do a good job at keeping lines of communication open with St. George and voicing our concerns and needs as pilots to them. St. George in return is always responsive.

4. If ASA decertified ALPA and went in house I think you would have a much stronger chance of getting Skywest pilots at least to consider their options/proposals with respect to the ASA pilots.

5. Quite frankly though, I don't think Skywest pilots want to take on ASA's pilot problems anymore than ASA wants to take on Skywest's pilot problems.

 

Interesting points. I would opine that ASA's problems are the same (or very similar to) SkyWest's pilots' problems. We are in this together. And our previously adversarial relationship with management has changed greatly in the last year or so.

 

I would be open to that. Actually it was tried two union drives ago but the alpa folks alleged that an in-house union would not have the needed financial resources to operate. I haven't tried to run the numbers, so I'm not sure. Of course we have a lot more pilots now than back then.

 

Of course an independent union at Skywest would have the resources. Even a pilot group of a few hundred pilots can have an independent union with resources to run itself. There have been many in the past. The point I think those people are making is that unless you have something like 5000 members, you wont have the resources that ALPA has from its 50,000+ members. And even then, its always ALPA that congress calls on to testify about anything pilot. Even the Hudson accident had congress asking ALPA to testify about, not USAPA.

I don't think that you would be successful with a union drive right now at Skywest. But there may be a time when management finally throws the pilots under the bus and then it may be possible.

 

Great idea....let's decertify ALPA at all airlines and further erode what little industry unity remains!

Here's an idea, let's all negotiate contracts individually......just like JetBlue. Then we could really show the management-types where we stand. Afterall, a group of one is much stronger than a group of 50, 60, 70,000+ pilots, right?

NO!
It's time to collectively take a stand......TOGETHER. Stop the uSAPa-like splintering by taking your ball and going home and calling for ALPA decert. Short term sacrifices are going to be necessary to improve our long term careers. That doesn't include attempting to form in-house unions whenever your panties are in a bunch. Rather, we need to start working together to improve ALL our careers.

ALPA, while not perfect, IS THE BEST CHOICE TO DO JUST THAT.....IMPROVE ALL OUR CAREERS IN THE LONG RUN.

 

ALPA has done nothing to stop the whipsaw at the Regionals. Then again, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to questions of regional -vs- mainline lifestyle. Look at the way TSA pilots are being treated by "Transtates Holdings", which has been structured perfectly to shift flying from one side of the column to the other like a monopoly. It should be illegal for a regional "holdings" company to operate for the same major partner on two or more certificates. It allows them to disinherit all growth opportunity awarded to the success and professionalism of the first group to the less senior, cheaper side of the company without any penalties. Now TSA is even hiring as fast as they can on GoJets, while inconveniencing all of their senior pilots who have their lives established in STL. Why would anybody ever want to join ALPA when they do nothing on issues like this one. As soon as ALPA is willing to step up and work for us, everyone should join. As it stands now they are just another part of the machinery in the airline business game, and have long since lost their clout with many pilots. We are a house divided, and will never gain the lifestyle that we want through traditional methods.

 

I take it you haven't heard of the Fee For Departure Task Force?

Anyways, ALPA has put in strong scope language in contracts since the Mesa/Freedom fiasco. Unfortunately, it seems that ALPA is reactionary and therefore it takes a whole bargaining cycle to institute lessons learned from management's previous tactics. TSA happens to be next in line in the bargaining cycle since Mesa/Freedom.

 

What have they done man? Scope language... Whatever. It hasn't stopped us getting "uncut" here at XJT. Mesa has a union, so does TSA, so does PSA, I would gladly work at SkyWest over any of those places, heck if I went to SkyWest when I was offered an interview 4 years ago I'd make more money than I do here.

I like our MEC, but it's not like everything is good here. We just lost over 300 guys and took a pay-cut, but we keep talking about how happy we are here. What a joke.

It's not ALPA's fault, it's that we're still here talking about "raising the bar." You know what'll raise the bar? PILOTS QUITTING, using their degrees and saying F-THIS! F-this $40/hr 4th year pay when my little brother was offered $55,000 out of undergrad school.

I guess I didn't even work 100 days last year, and you can't do that flying a desk, but let's face it. 100 days off, isn't 100 days off if you can't afford to do anything or you have to work a part time job.

Oh yeah, and Garth Brooks sucks...

 

I think ALPA is turning the corner on the regionals. The task force hasn't done anything concrete but its certainly a very good start. This will take at least one whole bargaining cycle, probably two, before you see results. The problem sometimes is that pilots are their worst enemy.

Anyways, yes, we have been "uncut" here (no thanks to Skywest for that either, by the way). But that scope language, written by an ALPA attorney, is what saved you from what Skywest wanted to do to your job. Scope language that was learned the hard way by your fellow ALPA pilots at Mesa after JO created his alter ego airline, Freedom. You can thank them for that.

Do you honestly believe that Mesa's management, or TSA's management would treat their pilots any better if they had no union? ALPA, or any union, is not the fix all for everything but they certainly can help. Ask yourself, honestly, what it might be like at those places without ALPA and if you still think ALPA doesn't do anything for them, then I have nothing else to say other than we will have to disagree.

And yes, Garth Brooks sucks.

 

Disagree about what? I say in my post it's not ALPA's fault. It's OUR fault.