Conflict of Interest? (XJT pilots march)
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if pilots from XJT are marching to protest UAL's outsourcing of regional jet flying, as the article states below, would this not be a conflict of interest? Now that ASA owns XJT, and ASA operates 70+ seat jets, it appears that if anyone from ASA/XJT picketing at these events is in direct conflict of their own employer.

From ALPA:
"More than 150 pilots converged on United Air Lines’ World Headquarters on Wednesday to express their displeasure with United’s continued practice of outsourcing. Braving a chilly, snowy Chicago day, the pilots walked in four orbits during the two-hour picketing event. United and Continental pilots were joined by their brethren from Delta, American, Mesa, AirTran, and ExpressJet.
United management intends to use the CO code on flights from Continental hubs, using outsourced 70-seat jets..."

And why is Mesa involved?

I hope its because these guys recognize the need to limit scope to help protect any future of this profession.

They're marching for the same reason Forrest Gump spoke at an anti-war rally...

To get the chicks.

They probably want to help save whats left of mainline flying. So hopefully one day they can fly bigger airplanes, better yet fly for a company that will pay them what they are worth. Its not regional pilot against mainline pilot. We have to realize we are all in the same baot.

Bingo. They are supporting the end of backsliding in this industry and preservation of big money/good career jobs!

All the ALPA's should be standing firmly behind this.

Mesa is involved because you could learn a thing or two.
While all other airlines focused on getting higher pay, Mesa was up against the most anti union management in the industry since Lorenzo. And while every one else increased their pay, Mesa pilots stood the line and fought for the toughest scope language in the entire industry, something that every one else could have done.
So while you supposedly know that all Mesa pilots must be bottom feeding scum, they all know what it is like to fight management. We know what it is like to sacrifice for the profession and our jobs, not just pay.

Mesa Pilots fought off JO & his 737's. It took serious guts, & we should all be grateful to those who took that stand.

On topic, XJET pilots don't have a conflict of interest. They have an interest in salvaging their careers & stopping the backslide. Skywest may own them, but they don't operate 70 seaters on their certificate, and Skywest management is not on a hurry to help ExpressJet pilots so why should ExpressJet pilots help them? I'm glad to see XE pilots supporting their ALPA brothers & sisters, unity is all we have left, & sometimes it looks like that's going too.

We should be grateful. But that was a long time ago and the vast majority of those pilots are long gone...hopefully the current crop of mesa pilots will continue in that tradition once things settle down, especially the 411. I suspect many of them have lived and learned over the past couple years.

Agreed. I also was referring to the specific Mesa pilots who took a stand, rather then the current Mesa pilot group. (Although some of the current Mesa pilot group was probably involved)

Thats CBA was signed in the spring of 2003.

If the APC numbers are correct on the current junior CA's, that means that every CLT, IAD, ORD, and PHX CA was on property at that time.

"Vast majority" is probably a stretch as to the numbers of who's left to remember that whole 737 thing

I wonder how many showed up? 2 XJT pilots reportedly picketed in IAH. One MEC guy and one line pilot. I was conflicted. I brought my hat with me that day (11/30) and I had the time to go picket after commuting in before my trip, but I just couldn't make myself go. I think I would have vomited in the picket line.

If there was a PLAN other than simply taking OUR jobs (yes, I am declaring them OUR jobs after 15 years of giving them away to US and forking over OUR careers for their mainline pension/pay protection that isn't working out quite like they thought it would) and telling us to get at the back of the bus to get rehired at mainline when they take them back? They can go forking fork themselves.

Give me a PLAN other than "sacrificial unemployment" and blowing a huge forking hole in my already 40%-discounted airline pilot career because they woke up 10 years late. Yeah, right. XJT guys have been some of the strongest union pilots anywhere, but we are sick of hearing it from the other side. At this point, we need whatever pennies we can salvage of the chit our careers have become. We need to forget about empty mainline promises that will do nothing to make our careers any less chitty than they are. The majors can have the RJs back, but not before every RJ pilot fights for every last penny that we can get. Management played this perfectly. But that doesn't matter now. We have been divided and regional pilots have NO reason to help you. Sorry.

Maybe go picket if you have been at stuck at regionals only a few years, not 10 or 12. I don't think any regional pilot is entitled to anything, but how about a small bit of recognition? After a decade, I need a PLAN other than the back of the career bus.

ALPA and the mainline MECs are so jacked-over they have ceased to have a reference point to just how jacked they are.

They are like panhandlers your ignore on the street. They want to give you a story and steal from you. They are going to have to take it, or give me a plan that doesn't destroy MY career even more than it has been already. Until then, give me the 70 seaters and the extra $4 to fly it for as long as possible until the mainline guys are forced to fork their own careers to get it back. Why? Well, it's because it's AVAILABLE TO ME. As far as I can tell, there is no mainline job at any payrate that is AVAILABLE TO ME. Sell my "future at mainline" for a paltry $4 override. Yeah, well, it's $4 I can't get anywhere else. Make it back in the right seat of a 737... 6 years from now... yeah right...

The AGE 65 APOCALYPSE and now they want the jobs "back at mainline" Great plan guys. That sounds really great. Get a better set of ideas or GO FORK YOURSELVES..

wow some people are angry here. In my opinion there should not be an regional pilots period. All flying on all types of airplanes should be done by mainline pilots and get paid mainline pay! I hope CAL/UAL pilots will stick it to Smisek! If I was off, I would have gladly walked the line.

Is this whole post flame bait? Or is Captain America just one of the guys who continuously contributes to the downfall of this profession

If you've been at XE 10 years you had a chance to go to CAL, & you'd be sitting nicely there holding a solid line on the 757/767. Seems like you have no one to blame but yourself. :cool:

Glad to see I agree with someone on here.
Isn't it great that these mainline guys have convinced themselves that regional pilots are the problem? The act like we want to be making substandard wages with junk work rules. They don't see that they put us here because they wanted extra money when times were good. Thanks ALPA and thanks mainline carriers for your awesome negotiating! Now we are supposed to applaud these UAL guys for wanting the flying they didn't want back.
In the end if the mainlines take back the regional flying the current generation of regional pilots get F'ed because when the mainlines hire they will hire minorities and women first while guys with 10 years experience wait around taking a junior spot on a 737. Atleast the greedy bastards at the top made a stand though right? Fixing their errors at no cost to them.

I just love that so many jack holes think guys stuck at XJT 10 years all had our golden chance at CAL, and we either 1) refused and chose to stay at XJT or 2) Had some major malfunction and could not get hired. No. Not at all true. Some of us never did. Some of us got to go say hi to the CAL captain on our commutes home, and also got to say hi to the new hire FOs who had been our FOs at XJT a couple months prior. Fun stuff.

I tried to get over. Hard. Plenty of internal recs, no interview. I got caught in the "we're not taking any more XJT guys with 1,000+ PIC because they're taking our type rating and selling it over at SWA" hole.

Listen, I am done being bitter, but I am also done thinking I can do anything to "make the profession better." The profession, ALPA, mainline MECs, whatever, made a bunch of choices that ****ed over an entire generation of airline pilots. And they have offered nothing to ease the losses. So, screw them. That's the new plan. Take as much of their jobs and money as possible before the whole regional thing collapses in the next 5-10 years and I go sell tires or whatever. I tried. They didn't.