Good luck getting the SkyWest pilots to sign off on ANY union. Too many pilots there fail to see the benefits and still think non union is the way to go. There are many union supporters at SkyWest and always have been, just not enough to vote one in. And right now is the time since the law changed how a union is voted in. While there seems to be some sort of an underground movement going on to get a drive going, there isn't even any kind of a card drive happening yet. At this rate the FAs will get a union before the pilots do!

Bet your a$s I'd sign it. Nothing would make me happier than to see the pilots of XJT/ASA/SKW form as one.

ALPA would not require a single list. That would come at contract negotiation time. Essentially the two carriers (ASA/XJT and SKW) would need to negotiate for a single list and a single contract.

As far as being unhappy with anyone's current leadership, what makes you think that anything will change just because it's an in-house union. The same people will be running the show. More accountability is the real answer, not the name of the union.

For example, let's require an independent audit of our MEC every two years. That would shake things up! I'm pro-union, but very aware of the natural corruption that occurs within any institution, and unions are just as prone as management or government or any other institution to lose touch with why they are there and look out for themselves. And often they aren't even aware of it.

But should we have a single union and a single list? Absolutely. Should it be in-house or ALPA? I'd have to say ALPA only because they have the deep pockets to support us. The real question is can we set up a regional pilots union for all the regional carriers? RALPA--the Regional Airline Pilot's Association. ASA/XJT, SKW, Pinnacle, Mesaba, Trans States, GoJet, Mesa, Horizon, Compass, Comair, etc. all represented by the same union and on the same team.

Do it the way SWAPA and APA does... contract it out.

Why not...you could even contract with ALPA national, they'd do anything for a nickel.

What hasn't ALPA done? Ask Mesa pilots what would have happened if they were non-union under JO?

If Skywest were to go ALPA, it does NOT mean an eventual merger of lists. It is not an ALPA policy. And if it was, it wouldn't force management to merge the lists. It would only be required if that language already existed in the contract.

Not necessarily. It depends if ASA/XJT MECs decide they want to expend negotiating capital trying to get one list.

Why pay for those services at a premium when you can just go ALPA to begin with and pay for it at no additional cost?

skywest getting an inhouse union would be a bad idea. Skywest pilots just don't make the kind of money that 2% would be adequate to fund a union.


Because the reality of the situation is that alpa doesn't have a chance in hell at skywest. So sapa is the only way a certified union gets in at skywest. The problem is once the details on how the union would be funded come out then the idea of having a certified sapa will be rejected as well.

This whole mentality of the name of the association your union would belong to is silly. Whether it's the Skywest pilots' union under ALPA or the Skywest pilots' union under CAPA, or completely independent makes NO difference in the effectiveness of your locally elected MEC leaders. But you are right in that one major difference will be the funding along with many other things.

If your sentiment is true, talk about cutting of your nose to spite your face.

I'd be for it. Just a threat of another union 'warming up in the bullpen' might cause ALPA to lock down and be more driven.

Skywest is like an airline with 5 smaller airlines in it. You've got the ****ed off always union ORD guys, the Semi union DEN guys, The Company to the death SLC guys, The pothead/surfer "everything is cool, bro" west coast guys and then skywest express.

2 out of 5 of those groups are always union and 1 or 2 maybe come into that camp ever so often. That was the case about a year ago. When there was talk about losing our ppo healthcare. I think Russel saw that doing that would really endanger the non-union precedent at skywest thus his job so he nixed that idea. Also, now that skywest is hiring again and people are upgrading it is back to 2 groups for a union. I doubt people will be for a certified sapa since there are no details or plans on how the union
would be run or funded and ALPA just isn't popular at skywest.

The way I see it, the only way alpa or a real union gets on at skywest is if expressjet rolls into slc or lax with 30 erjs each and gets a base and skywest loses flying. Then people will start demanding one list and the road to that is a union. Or a union is forced on skywest by an arbitrator. Other then that its just not going to happen. Plus congress just passed a bill that puts the rules back the way they were before obama changed then. That and the fact that skywest is going to be hiring 70 a month till the end of the year. 500 bright eyed "i'm just happy to be here" people will burn any chance for a drive.