Or he could pull a page out of the CMR playbook and just fly home in the afternoon on the 30th day. His decision will be heavily influenced by the Regional Airline Association and Delta. If they want him to stand strong, 9E has a lot of cash and they may test the determination of the pilots. Remember, when you go out on strike, you walk out on a guaranteed job. You are walking out saying I would rather shut the company and be unemployed then return under our current working conditions.

I am restating the obvious to many 9E pilots, but you must understand what you are doing. I respect tremendously the resolve and fight to stand up for your convictions. I hope that you walk away with a stellar contract that doesn't require you to walk. But if you do, remember that when door number one closes, there may not be a door number two in today's economy. Good luck guys.

 

How many 9E guys have contributed to the PAC? Your walking papers are influenced by our influence in Washington. When the RAA contributes millions to the elections, our influence is only as strong as our pocketbooks.

 

Door #2 for me is out of the industry personally. I would rather fight till the end and shut it down then continue to work under these draconian rules.

 

Terrible post dude. I don't have time to rebut ur post but please do tell where all of pinnacles money is!
And how much???

 

Sorry if you took my "best of luck" to be a terrible post.

9E has nearly $300m in cash and short/long term investments. They have one of the strongest cash positions of any regional as I recall. That's where the money is "dude".

Now, tell me Rama, if 9E doesn't have money, what kind of position are you in to get an "industry leading" contract that I've heard the 9E pilots advocate for FIVE years? Where will the money come from?

Perhaps I misread the financials on 9E, and if so, please correct me. You're either in a position to extract additional cash from Pinnacle because they have it or you're not. I think they have it. But that also means, they could ride out a strike if mother Delta tells them to play hardball. That was my post. Either way, my only care is not for you, but for your pilot group. I want you industry leading. Bring the industry up. Sorry if that's terrible.

 

9E does not have $300M in cash/liquid investments. Read the latest 10K. We DID have $300M about 18 months ago before purchasing Colgan, stock buybacks at a cost basis of $16/shr (now trading around $2.50) and dumping $120M+ into Auction Rate Securities that are now illiquid. There was also some bond issuances for some -900's, and losses absorbed from Colgan until they could become profitable (which only happened last quarter or the one prior). I think the actual number is closer to $50-60M without pulling up the 10K. There are also some issues with striking built into the ASA so mgmt has some problems if they just let us storm off.

Of course nothing official has been issued by the NMB yet.

 

what a joke, one of our own captains made the same comment on our company message board. most of the FO's at 9E qualify for food stamps, there is no way we have extra change to throw towards PAC. Now if our MEC wants to use some of our dues to do that, I'm all for it.

 

Higney,
Thanks for the help. I am mobile and didn't have the time or patience to deal with mr. Delta

Dal4never,
I think you can go back up on your pedestal and return to the majors board with your attitude. And as for our contract, we are asking for industry AVERAGE!!!!
The only thing our management will allow to be leading is the length that it took to sign the new contract!

 

You can back the PAC with as little as $1 a paycheck. Every little bit helps, even though I hate politics- sometimes you gotta play the game!

 

The MEC can't do that. Neither can ALPA national collect dues for political purposes. It must be based on voluntary contributions. I'm not slamming what you make, just making a statement. If the RAA contributes heavily to lobbyists to further their agenda and give to political stooges, at the end of the day, who has the power? Its those who have the influence. Sadly, the game is a pay to play. I hate it, but its the reality of our political system.