If ASA and Skywest Ever Merged Pilot Groups..
 

Just curious if anyone knows what would hypothetically happen to a furloughed pilot if one day in the future ASA and Skywest merged senority lists.. Would the furloughed pilots just get dropped? It just crossed my mind the other day, and I can't seem to find any information on it.

SKW would do whatever benefits them financially first without regard to the pilots. Ask me how I know?

By the time this could even possibly come true, there won't be any pilots on furlough at ASA....It likely won't happen as long as ALPA is on the property at ASA, and I don't see that changing.

How can that be true? Isn't the Skywest motto "Just do the right thing" and by right thing they mean doing whatever the hell they want and making it right with a TFAYD. but hey, I have 2 days off now that screw support can't touch me. YEHAAAAW

Imagine one unified pilot group, develop their own union, away from ALPA.

ALPA cannot represent the Regionals against the Legacies.

I think many of the SkyWest pilots would support such a move, many just cant stand ALPA.

Why don't they like ALPA? I'm not sure if having several dozen unions fighting each other does us any good. There seems to be too many as it is. IBT, SWAPA, APA, ALPA, FAPA. Who'd I miss? Toss in cabotage and we have a IFALPA and other foreign unions.

Alpa is only the umbrella. You are your own union! Each MEC is responsible to their own people not national. SkyWest Alpa is responsible for representing the pilots of SkyWest to SkyWest management, Delta Alpa to Delta management. Alpa national doesn't go to Delta on behalf of SkyWest. There is no conflict of interest. Each MEC pulls from the knowledge base, experience and resources of national. National does not oversee the actions of your MEC. The conflict of interest idea is propaganda from management. Don't buy into it.

Your union (your mec) is as strong as you make it. By being involved and electing smart, competent, strong, ETHICAL representatives you will have a great union.

If SkyWest were to go in-house, it would fail miserably. We don't make enough as regional pilots to support any union actions.

Average regional salary: $50,000yr (capt/fo combined)
2% dues - $1,000
x2,800 pilots=
$2,800,000 per year

Now 1/2 of that goes to pay the salaries of SkyWest MEC -
chairman
vice chairman
secretary/treasurer

we cover their benefits, health insurance, equivelent flight pay (the company sure isn't gonna pay this). Remember they don't fly. They are full time running the business of representing you.

That leaves us with 1.4 million for:
legal representation
FAA representation of pilots
medical assitance
not to mention a strike (how far would 1.4 mil go to pay the salaries of the strikers?)
$1,400,000\2800=

$500 each. good luck!

One lawsuit against a pilot, by the company, would bankrupt the fledgling in-house union.
How much money do you think the company has to throw into a lawsuit?
How much experience do Ford and Harrison have(SkyWests on-call legal team)?
How much would your new union have? They read about negotiations in a book?
SkyWesters, in the last 6 months, how many pilots have had to fight to keep from being fired? How many HAVE been fired? Who would pay to fight for them? Where would that money come from?

It's all math and an in-house SkyWest union would not add up. The company would sink it in 6 months!

Yes, sir! I agree.

JUST SAY NO, IT IS ALPO!!!

Your assumptions are incorrect. The MEC officers are not required to be off the line full time. In fact, at ASA, only the Chairman is currently off full time. And I've heard the new reps plan on changing that too.

Also, could you provide a link to the last time a company sued a pilot at a unionized carrier?

If you add the ~2200 pilots at SkyWest to the ~1700 pilots at ASA, you'd have a good little size group paying dues at ~3900. For example, Frontier has ~800 with an in house union. Airtran has ~1700 (but just joined ALPA). UPS has ~2800. You get my point.

http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines.html

And you are way off base if you think 1/2 of union dues would go to salaries and benefits of a regional MEC's officers, let alone to those at a major airline! 50%? That's pretty funny. MAYBE 10% based on the numbers you stated above, but even that is probably a bit high for total salaries, benefits, etc. for MEC officers on full-time trip loss.

Regardless, regional airline wages cannot support their own in-house union. With SKW retaining the biggest union busting law firm in the country, a SKW in-house would be broke in a month. ALPA is the only answer. Just make it the best union it can be from your own group.

You have lots of overhead costs for the union. Printers, computers, phones, paper, rental costs of union buildings, and the list goes on and on.

And let's not forget SkyWest sued Alpa about wearing lanyards during the last drive, and don't forget the case that brought in handwriting experts(those that know get it).

SkyWest pilots do not make as much as AirTran or UPS or even Frontier.

In-house SkyWest union would fail.

With all due respect, you have no idea what you're talking about. Office expenses are less than 5% of a typical MEC budget. As for your other accusations, I get it. I was there too. And you're still wrong.

Perhaps they'll do the "you're your own union" thing, and skip the umbrella. Sounds awesome to me, like so many other pilot unions, both in the US, and around the world. Nothing earth shattering here, except to the bottom line at the business called ALPA.

1) SkyW Inc. has indicated they intend to keep the senority list seperate forever. Believe them or not.. that's the current standing of Inc.

2) A "relative senority" integration would be the only accepable one I can think of.

3) By the time this happens all the answers you seek about fuloughs will be a moot point.

4) I perdict the next union drive (either alpa or non) would pass if a) ASA guys joined in a discussion of one day joining a common union, b)economy stays as-is and pilots don't see an upgrade in sight, awful reserve rules and Draconian punishment for people outside the 'friends and family' network.