Well, it's not just cass and ASAP. It's a LONG list that you guys coat tail on. That's just merely two examples. But I appreciate your thanks. You are the first person to say that. Incredible!

The perceived negative image those on this board may have is not my concern.

I'm not worried about SAPA but you are right about being worried about the XJT MEC. My point is that things would be different if you weren't coat tail riders.

Lastly, you guys can be working for free and making Skywest twice as much profits, but it still doesn't mean that you or any of the 3000 pilots decide what is best for the shareholders. Only the board does and management runs the place profitably and write your operating manual for you to follow. Our management also wrote an operating manual for us to operate. We as pilots just do what they wrote in there. Three thousand different pilots would be operating the same as you 3000. You don't make a difference on what management thinks is best for the shareholders. Otherwise you would have a seat as a board member.

Is that clear enough now?

And yet you still don't answer my question. So who is bloviating?

And we are talking about your anchor weight. Do you think it's harder for us and cost negotiating capital in order to improve 401 matching, health benefits, and scope when we are negotiating that for 3000 additional pilots who don't even contribute to the negotiations? Do you honestly believe managing is more likely to cave on any of those sections when they know it will apply to 7500 pilots rather than 4500?

 

SkyWest has made money every quarter for decades. ASA turned around quickly. ExpressJet was on the edge if extinction and even though they have been given life support, they continue their money loosing ways, continue to push against improvements and drag down the rest of the company.

 

Give me examples? How are the ERJ pilots at Expressjet dragging the airline down?

 

That's what
management has done. They would have done this with 3000 different pilots. But we are not talking about management. We are talking about the contributions the pilots make other than what management tells them to do in the operating manual. The stuff that is above and beyond to help the profession and fellow pilots. We are not talking about the profits and dividends that the shareholders get. What do you pilots do even if you are not profitable (because profits are irrelevant in pilot contribution to the profession).

I hope that helps explain it now.

PS that post was entirely inaccurate.

 

And you're coat-tailing our profits. Seems we are paying more to keep money flowing into ALPA coffers than any other non-union airline out there. Care to refute that?

 

You have no idea what youre talking about.

And for the sake of argument, lets assume its true. That doesn't change any fact regarding express jet is loosing money. They are like people I know who are thousands in debt but continue to buy expensive cloths and electronics. Totally irresponsible. Your foundation is crumbling and you're arguing with the contractor who trying to fix it because he walked on your lawn.

 

I've been refuting it for the last 20 posts! We are operating under the rules management writes for us in the operating manual. Management makes the deals with mainline part era and manage the operation. The pilots operate the same now as they would if we were losing money. In other words, profits or not, it's irrelevant in this discussion. I'm talking about what you 3000 pilots do regardless of profits! What do you contribute? Nothing more than an anchor on our negotiations at this point.

Will anyone ever answer my questions? Or will you guys keep throwing out the same straw man argument about profits?

Yeah but the thing is that it's not the pilots with the credit card. That's management. Which is precisely why it's irrelevant to the conversation at hand. If Skywest had bad management and the same pilots they do now, they would lose money. You see my point yet?

 

Thanks for typing it for me, the pilots are simply flying what they negotiated with the company. The company bid a contract that they can't fly, they need to talk to mainline but instead they turn to pilots. This cycle has been going on for years and the SKW pilots want the EXJ pilots to take concessions, work for less so the company can make a profit and have more success in future bids... In other words s do they can underbid other airlines.

One airline takes cuts, then the other matches it and management underbids, just to repeat the cycle again.

But as long as I am flying and get to mainline right! The more we do this the more reason we give management to continue transferring mainline jobs to the regionals. We are flying F100, DC-9 and similar size equipment for what the FA used to get paid... We are our worse enemies.

 

I don't think you'll find any SkyWest Pilot who wants EJ to take concessions. Certainly that's not what I'm getting at. I think you'll find SkyWest pilots are trying to expand pay and benefits.

My beef with some of the vocal minority at express jet is simply their inability to grasp the facts. And to show a willingness to work with their management to make meaningful changes which will lead to a sustainable company for all of us.

 

And what would you call such "meaningful changes". These will be changes that benefit the company at the expense of pilots QOL or pay.