A helping hand for the future XJT furloughs. "Come to our open house to show you what it is like to be an adult. Unlike the kids you have been. If you still don't get it.. furlough and no job for you!"

BS. SKW has a lot of lifers, who generally hate unions. Although I'm starting to see more union talk lately.

The vast majority of the upwardly mobile pilots are probably pro union.

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to make hiring decisions based on union status or activity. Most people think that protects union members but it also works the other way. So majors cannot make union membership or lack thereof a hiring criteria. So pep rally is the best they can do.

A flow through would be ok but then they lose their ability to be selective. A national seniority list would work too, but that's a pipe dream.

I'm SkyWest and probably a lifer. For years I didn't want anything to do with a union, especially ALPA.

While still not excited about ALPA for the regionals, I'd sign a union card in a second.

I'm tired of going backwards, our management is playing us like fools and there's nothing we can do about it.

That being said, I would not be surprised if ALPA National is prodding this process to get the SkyWest pilots to play along?

No dues. No news.

Republic, Eagle. PSA all have unions. How has that been beneficial to them? What regional carrier has a union that has been able to produce results in the form of compensation, benefits, duty time, trip rigs, days off, etc? This is not a rhetorical question. If there is such a union out there, then perhaps it should be the model for the regional airlines. ALPA certainly does not seem interested in looking out for the "little" guys.

A lot of Skywest pilots are pro-union. The ones who are anti-union are the senior lifers who wouldn't care about moving on to United anyway but unfortunately the senior people at the company are the ones that call the shots. The junior pilots wanting to move on are a lot more pro-union and aren't looking for benefits without the cost.

There probably will never be a passing Union drive because the people who want it most are unhappy and just going to move on to majors before it happens anyway. The lifers who don't want a union will stay.

Last I checked ALPA has no part of the hiring process. This is just a good way to get your foot in the door or introduced to someone at united but ultimately it's united that hires and not ALPA.

Make sure you tell the Capt. on the interview panel that he has no say. All it takes is a down check and it's on to the next guy/gal. Plenty of applicants for every slot, in the coming years unity in the ranks will be necessary for maximum gains and SKYW guys will be the big question mark, except for the numerous organizing committee members. But keep telling yourself it makes no diff.

Wait, so your telling me that the Captain doing the interview will see that a qualified applicant isn't with ALPA so they won't be offered the job? That sounds ludicrous! Now if ALPA was doing the interview then this would make sense. I find it extremely hard to believe that someone as smart as United would turn away a great pilot just because he isn't ALPA. I can't even imagine a captain doing the interview to be bias toward ALPA applicants. ALPA would be bias and turn away a qualified applicant all day long but United is much smarter than this. My point is, United Captains do the hiring and not United ALPA guys.