Funny how almost every pilot at SkyWest who is pro ALPA has never been in ALPA, but those that have been would never go back.

Well union rant aside, SkyWest should at worst hold the line. Delta got what a 12% increase?, our CEO and management pay has made year over year continual increases, why should our trend reverse? We need greater than a 1%-2% increase to keep up with inflation. They know their saving grace at reducing costs is pulling CRJ200's offline and replacing them with more efficient super RJs. That was worth investing +$12,000,000,000.00. They can come at us all day long saying that new contracts depend on our concessions, but truth be told they will ink a new deal with or without them.

?"Maybe YOU (not we?) should work together"?. When did anyone express contentious or mean spirited anything towards ASA/Xjet? Did I miss something? Maybe it was somewhere in that thread/youtube clip when some random pilot video recorded a SkyWest pilot helping bring down valet bags and mocked him for it. Or maybe it was one of those times on these threads where after positive news happens at SkyWest we are wisely tempered with: "your one CEO away from blah blah", "you guys think your crap is better", "kool-aid drinkers!", "every regional sucks, you're time will come", "I swear somewhere, sometime, some SkyWest guy said he was mainline". Gee I never knew that being proud/satisfied/content with where one works equates to being delusional/arrogant/snobby.

There have been numerous airline strikes in the last decade, spirit being the last one. But unions are not just about contracts. To me that is not the best reason for a union. You just have to be able and willing to see the Forrest from the trees.

Again, would any of those places have been better off if Ornstien, Hulas, or Tinnery had a run of the place with no union? If you don't think that each one of those pilot groups would be worse off without a union and those management, then you are not being intellectually honest.

Now it's been a while since I've been in a logic class, but I believe the fallacy you're making is called "affirming the consequent". You're saying that just because Mesa, Trans States (vis a vis GoJet), and Pinnacle (I don't know who Tinnery is, but I think you mean Phil Trenary) are better off with unions (which I'll grant you for the sake of argument) then SkyWest would be better off with a union, too. That's not necessarily true.

I've said in previous posts, which you probably haven't seen, that I did in fact vote for ALPA the last time I was given the chance. Certainly that's not because I'm an advocate of ALPA, and I was conflicted about that vote. Generally speaking, I don't even like labor unions, but in our seniority-based industry which completely strips us of any free agency (and thus the ability to bargain individually, on our own merits) there are some definite advantages to having a true, legally binding contract, especially if you ever run afoul of the company.

Ideally, as others have said, we'd have an in house union. I don't need 2% of my income going toward some guy with a big mustache named Prater. I don't need to pay for office space in Herndon. I don't need a Tim Martins ALPA magazine. Or a lanyard. Or a pin. I certainly don't need to be funding lavish MEC banquets. Or their top shelf bar tabs. I think the corruption goes on; that's just off the top of my head. Still, I voted for it, begrudgingly, because there are some benefits.

My original point, though, is that you assume that because bad airlines are better off with a union, ours would be, too. But maybe not. You can't prove it either way.

SAPA + Negotiation = oxymoron.

I see what you're getting at, but...

To negotiate, you don't need to have a union. You just need to have leverage. It just so happens, ironically, that our leverage is the threat of unionization.

I just haven't found a better made lanyard.

SAPA negotiating update:

Well dudes, we met with management this week, and like, they told us we make too much money! I know, right? Well we told them better step off dudes! Then they're all like "we need to compete with all the other regionals" and we're like, but dudes, like, you just ordered 400 sweet new airplanes! And they're all like, "we need you to be cost competitive in order to fly them". Bogus! So we went "ok, dudes, lets just wait and see what ExpressJet gets then add on 2%", and they were like "ok, we have that situation well in hand, sounds good to us". So like, that's our update! Hope you liked it dudes! Hang loose and we'll see you braus out on the line! Ok!

republic has a union, 7 plus years without a new contract plus worse work rules than any other regional.

I like how he tried to hide his igorance with the word "intellectually"! Heres one for you Nevets, if you can't undersand how your premise is flawed then you are "intellectually retarded".