It's not contractual unfortunately. It’s just corporate policy that was relayed to us by the VP of flight ops when the furlough was announced. Apparently we keep our longevity pay (year 2 after a few weeks for most) and start at the bottom of seniority. We were all at the bottom at ASA anyway. The most senior furlough is from mid Jan. 08.

 

I'll see if I can find something in our contract that has the info if it's even in there. I have just heard about it. The last class at ASA was either late April 08 or early May 08. I was in the 2nd to last class and that was March 31st 08.

 

If it gets you guys off the street then come on over. Unfortunately you guys can’t get DOH seniority because that would be a merger. Personally I’d love to see a %age based merger between ASA and SKW with every pilot keeping his or her relative seniority.

Just out of curiosity, can you all see pilot DOH and currently seniority numbers? Our Skywestonline website maintains it for every pilot to see and it’s updated weekly. If so could you match the below?

DOH and Seniority of these pilots:

1, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, etc and include all the pilots who are furloughed.

I’d like to crunch the numbers to see what a basic %age based merger would look like. I know there are positives and negatives. On both sides pilots would either become senior or junior to pilots hired before or after them. BTW, in the most recent mergers between NWA : DAL and US : AWA, arbitrators have ruled toward a %age based SLI and not DOH so I wouldn't expect it. But overall if no one looses relative seniority then it’s relatively fair………….LOL! I understand this will more than likely never happen and if it does it won't happen for a very very long time but I’m just curious and I need to feed my cat.

Thank you for your help.

 

I don't understand the "since I had it bad, everyone else should have it just as bad" mentality. I think its great that some people may not have to endure first year pay. Everyone should be happy for them.

 

I remember discussing this with the ALPA guys during the drive... their VERY quick anaylsis was, very top of the list would be dominated by SkyWest, then ALOT of the ASA list.... The vast majority of SkyWest guys lose in a DOH scenario. However the very top and bottom of skywest's list would stand to gain. (if you include the furloughed ASA guys in the equation.)

 

I am not complaining. I gladly took the job at SkyWest knowing full well why my first year pay would be what it was. In an industry where the economic reality is razor thin profit margins, I only ask that everybody carry their own weight. The sum total of the organization can only be profitable if the individual parts each contribute in a positive way.

In my opinion, it is a little out of balance to ask me or any other pilot, flight attendant, ramper, gate agent, etc. or any other SkyWest employee to "finance" (lower salary, lower quarterly bonus, lower stock price, etc.) the flight training for someone else. Anyway, this is all a moot point. As it was explained above, they do get paid 1st year pay from SkyWest and it is up to UAL ALPA to pay the rest.

I would assume that mainline pilots would not take the job at SkyWest if they did not want it or could not afford it.

In reality, I don't think most mainline pilots would take the job anyway. All the guys I know who left SkyWest to go to United and got promptly furloughed are all now employed in non-aviation related fields making much more money than they did flying airplanes for SkyWest and/or United and they are home every night. They are not coming back to SkyWest and will very likely not go back to United.

 

No point in even discussing stapling or DOH...federal law now requires alleghany-mohawk procedures...regardless of union status.

 

Waveit I heard something similar at my PC. Except GB stated we wouldn't be doing any sort of jets for jobs type deal with united because as soon as they came over here they'd be furloughed because we're so overstaffed. (basically moving from one furlough list to another).

 

what rumors are these? Q flying?

 

I heard we will probably start hiring again in the next 6 months.