stickwiggler

D'angelo,
I will try my very best to not sound like I'm lecturing, and I won't resort to name calling, but your attitude is really, really selfish. "the threat of a union... and we save 2%" Don't you realize what your saying? It's not the 1,600 bucks that come out of my check every year, it is the idea that we (union pilots, like comair) do the really hard work. When they went on strike they got everything from dirty looks, to beat up, to death threats by fellow workers. many of them lost homes, marriages, even their whole career to fight the good fight.
I can't tell you that you shouldn't be selfish, and that it is shallow and short sighted to think the way you do. I can tell you that you should have the brains to keep your mouth shut. What you just said is a slap in the face of the pilots who have sacrificed so much in the past to put you in the position to even entertain your thoughts.

IMHO, what you should be doing is your fair share in the struggle of pilots v management, but if not, at least thank those who do.

stickwiggler

Slap, they won't merge. No one wants it more than I do, but I just don't think it will happen, here's why.

The only reason we got LAX is because of the no compete-united thing....we all know that. They (management) have made it clear that they want to go out and bid on other work for other major carriers. If we were to merge, that would limit their flexibility.

I wish it wasn't so.......

Slaphappy

You are probably right, but in this industry a month is like a year you never know what its going to be like in 2 years. If they do go alpa then at least our payrates will be semi-equal and there won't be such a drive to lower our "costs". BTW, Did you ever think you would fly a crj-700 at ASA 6 years ago?

Slaphappy

I think you should know that D'angelo was banned from Flightinfo for flaming some soon to be furloughed mesaba pilots.

D'Angelo

The big problem with the union is they have no vision. They are still trying to live like its pre 9/11. Remember the comair strike was in march of 2001. Had 9/11 happened right around when comair was to go on strike I guarantee you there would have been no strike. There would have been no sweetheart deal etc. etc.

The true heros are those who don't cave into peer pressure. The current line of thinking is that every new contract has to outdo the old one at any cost. This is old outdated thinking. It is simply false and wrong. If a pilot group signs a new contract that works for them and their families they just raised the bar even if it was lower than the last contract signed. This game ALPA plays of lets see if we can outdo the last etc. isn't fighting the good fight its giving into peer pressure. I am very proud of the comair pilot group for voting for the concessions. Though its status is up in the air for now we voted for what was best for us despite the peer pressure. It's a lot easier to tell someone what to do with their life than it is to walk in their shoes. IMO it takes a lot more courage to do that than it does to give in and do what everyone else is telling you to do. Just because all the kids at recess say smoking is cool and you should do it doesn't mean you should have to. If skywest is unfortunate enough to vote in a union they will quickly regret their decision and realize it would have been a lot cheaper to simply tease the company with a union drive when they need a raise, etc.

D'Angelo

The banning was a pure emotional decision because the mod was a former pinnacle if not maybe mesaba pilot. Trust me people have said far worse things than me and not gotten permanently banned over there. People over there simply didn't like the fact that I didn't talk like a union borg member. Trust me I recieved many messages of support and many messages of hate upto and including death threats. Compared to what many other people have said and done over there my stuff was minor leage. Simply spirited debate is all it was and thats all this is. I guess its really easy to get promoted to management now a days. All you have to do is not talk like the other pilots and voila! Instant promotion.

cortezthekiller

we dont deal with that

cortezthekiller

we dont have death threats here

stickwiggler

D'angie, this will be my last post to you because given your history and the content of your post it is obvious that you have limited experience in aviation, a complete lack of the big picture, and are a man of little to no moral fiber.
You seem to think that anyone that disagrees with you is someone blindly following the pack. Did it ever occur to you that the reason that so many people "follow the pack" is because they simply agree what is the best course of action?
You say that ALPA is stuck in the past. I suggest that you read a little. Those who fail to study history are bound to repeat it. Did you ever stop to ask why alpa does the one upmanship contract based negotiations? It is because the industry is cyclical, when it's up, you do the one upmanship, when it is down, management rides that wave and has a race to the bottom.
What you really don't seem to get is that the regionals are all in a competition for contracts. The reason that a lot of good guys are out of a job or back sliding in the profession is because companies have to lower there cost to get the bids. If it were not for the unions trying to keep the wages up, do you really think that Jerry would pay SW pilots as well as he does? Of course not, he pays exactly what he has to to stay competitive to attract pilots. If all the unions went away, companies would race to the bottom. A pure capitolist would say, let it happen...eventually no one will work for "x" number of dollars and the balance will be reached. Here's the problem, too many snot nose, jelled hair, sketcher wearing, momma's boys (I'm sure that is not you) are willing to sell there soul to "get in" and think that it will be an easy ride to a "better job later" The crew lounges of American Eagle, ASA, Chitaqua, Comair, Mesa, etc. are full of guys who thought the same thing. Events outside of your control can play an enormous role in all of our futures.
you pose the hypathetical, "what if comair would have been after 9/11" we need not ponder this hypathetical, I'M LIVING IT right now. Our contract expired in 2002, since then management has come to us with pay cuts. We refused, through discussion and a strike vote, now management has taken pay cuts off the table and tried to get savings somewhere else (operations/training/scheduling etc.) Do you think if we would have caved, that other managment would not have followed? Maybe not just one airline but after 3 or 4 went down that road, what do you think Jerry (Lorenzo) Atkins would have done to your pay?

I find it interesting that you use the "kids smoking at school reference" I guess it makes sense. We all have to draw on the sum of our experience.

Pilots are not rocket scientist, but they are a pretty smart group of guys/gals, most of which are A++ types prown to independent thinking. If you find yourself at odds with what the vast majority of your fellow pilots think, then maybe it is not that the majority are all fools, but rather you just have a LOT to learn.

Truman_Sparks

Man, now I gotta put D angelo on my ignore list on two web forums!!