I will no doubt give the man a fair shake... but by no means do I plan on giving him 7% of my already sh tty pay.
Asking 7% from a group that fought 5+ years for new pay rates and then turn around and say we need to honor PT and then rest of the band of fools for what they did... well IMHO is not very stand up.
BUT I will say that he does share information which is not the norm in this industry...
I still dont know if his intensions were good, but by basically telling us that there is a very strong chance Colgan will shutdown atleast gives people a heads up to start looking for other jobs.
In whatever way this plays out 700 furloughs will flood a market that is already pretty dry to begin with... But the coming pilot shortage should help fix that

 

believe me, i have my app out everywhere. and for the record, I work hard, show up ontime pressed current and ready to go. i'm polite to passengers, professional and helpful to my crew and generally do the best job i can. But i hate this company and the regional airline industry, but i love the piloting profession but feel that we need to uphold the profession to the same level we uphold our own professionalism.

 

Where was then mention of shutting colgan down? Was it one of his letters on mymesaba? I must have skimmed it too fast. But that would help me make my decision if I wanna wait and stick this out or try and bail before the other 700 guys do.

 

Your desire to be unemployed suggests you are either wealthy or live with someone who pays your bills. I am neither, so I hope the Q400 and Saab operations continue. SM stated that the problem with operating the Q400s and Saabs is that the payments received aren't covering expenses. This doesn't change whether Pinnacle, Mesaba, or Colgan pilots are flying them. We are already managed at nearly every level by Pinnacle or Mesaba people.

 

Just out of curiosity, why would he dump Colgan pilots? Wouldn't furloughs have to go in seniority order? And who's to say the mighty CRJ200 won't be next? If we file BK, wouldn't that give Delta the opportunity to dump some CRJs? Delta has made it clear that they want to get rid of the 50seat jets, so what would stop them from voiding the contract once BK is filed?

 

Thanks cloud. I've heard what you just said from many friends who worked for him at Frontier. Trust me there are more people here at Pinnacle that appreciate Menke than those who do not. It just seems like the haters are in the majority because they scream the loudest online. Menke's situation here at Pinnacle is very much like what happened at Frontier, as PT's team left a mess that Menke is in the process of cleaning up. The problem here at Pinnacle is the employees are used to a very different management style, and assume that Menke is just like previous management, which he is not. Once Menke gets his program going, this will be a great place to work and be one of the best regionals around to work for. Unfortunately it will be a tough year ahead as he will have to do some unpopular and tough things to make the company profitable and right the ship.

 

I don't have an MBA but you don't have to be Warren Buffett to visualize the following scenario playing out.

Based on SM's memo the reasons the company is in the current financial situation are:
1. Integration delays (blah blah blah)
2. Training costs associated with the ISL and 11-09
3. Loosing money on "pro rate" contracts (ALL 9L FLYING,9E 900 Flying)

So here is what I see happening in simple terms.

A. The company tries to get a 7% paycut and fails. It doesn't matter either way, it's just a pure "money grab" by them. They are filing BK either way.

B. So they go ahead and file BK.

C. Go to BK court and the judge will ask them if them why they are broke and if they have a plan to return to profitability.

At this point if YOU owned this company why wouldn't you just ask the judge to cancel the Bloch award/ISL and dump, spinoff, liquidate, or whatever Colgan and ALL the Colgan pilots. Then you dump the 9E Contracts and aircraft. Furlough some pilots and Bingo!, you're just left with a leaner, profitable airline with all premium Delta CPA flying. In basically one move they solve all the problems that are causing their current financial crisis.

IF a BK judge is doing his job correctly or if he is anti labor groups he won;t give a damn about the Bloch Award, the ISL, or a union contract. He doesn't care if or when little Timmy gets to upgrade, or whether or not employees get to keep their jobs. IN A PUBLIC COMPANY ALL HE CARES ABOUT IS GETTING THE COMPANY PROFITABLE FOR THE SHAREHOLDERS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!

I know it may appear to be harsh. I'm a 9L guy so this isn't a Colgan bash, but I think everyone needs to prepare for the worst. I hope it doesn't come to that point but you can't sit there and say that at least one bean counter or hired gun hasn't suggested this scenario to Menke.

 

i'm def not wealthy and i pay my own very steep student loan bills and my very meek living expenses. Its not that i don't want to be employed, i want to be employed better. We have an average contract. I don't want to be cheaper lift and get more airplanes that should be flown at mainline. I'm more interested in, you know, the big picture.

So either ual gives us more money to cover the employee costs or lets liquidate. If they can garner savings from bombardier, their lenders and other venders then great. But you will not see me voluntarily give up any of my pay or benefits.

 

I could also see the company furloughing out of seniority in this situation. If we dump all the Q's and SF-340 the training costs would be huge. So the company goes to the BK judge and explains why they have to do this and the judge agrees because all he cares about is the health of the company not the seniority system we have in place.

 

Other than that, i think you present a plausible scenario.