I agree with the general sentiment of this thread.

SAPA has become increasingly irrelevant under JP's rule. While I agree that posting pictures of someones house is going way too far, shutting down the forums entirely was way over the line.

Removing our primary tool for communication SAPA has essentially shown that they don't really want to represent the pilots at all. The behavior on the forums I feel was a direct result of the general apathy displayed by SAPA with regard to important issues (like the absurdity of allowing new hires to vote on the pay package.)

I think ALPA carriers don't allow new hires to vote, unless they've been on property a yr, correct? SAPA is a joke, real representation is needed. ALPA isn't the best but it's far better than the current dictatorship.

Don't count on ALPA to be any more representative or legitimate. They are nothing but a political machine looking to stay on flight pay loss for themselves.

Correct.

You can't vote at an ALPA carrier until you've been on property for a year and are off probation.

Someone who's still being evaluated and has no experience with the company shouldn't be voting.

It probably only happened with change of leadership, slow the conspiracy roll lol. I think JP is on his way to greener pastures. What was the house pic thing about? I didn't see the forums before all this

A couple thoughts:
1) Facebook for Skywest pilots. I'm sure there is a group already.
2) Twitter: May sound ridiculous but it is a mass communication media.
3) There is a ton of open time for August. How about we just work our scheduled time?

Ladies and Gentlemen, make no mistake about it, this is a tactic designed to silence the vocal dissenters. By removing the forum they have effectively removed our abilities to communicate "in-house" as a pilot group; to discuss opinions openly and candidly, albeit sometimes immaturely. This is indicative of a scared leadership group.

If it were an issue with one individual, the individual should be banned, not the entire forum.

Just like anything a few ruined it for everyone. Russ's explanation posted on sapa pretty much explains it all. It is pretty low and not what we as a group are about to intimidate a fellow pilot like someone did not once but TWICE. Does the timing of it sucks yea, but come on what did we all expect when someone takes it too far and sapa/Skywest could get sued for allowing the intimidation to keep occurring even after some people got banned the first time.
I'm all for donating some money to create a "pipe" like forums where volunteers are willing to be monitors and pilots can vent to the day to day ops.

SAPA has been wanting to get rid of the forum for a while. They got rid of the old one in exchange for the worse one in existence - straight out of 1998 - all in an effort to limit communication among the pilot group.

It's no wonder that the turnout for elections runs as low as 10%.

A SkyWest subreddit has been made on reddit.com. Spread the word. Reddit.com/r/SkyWestAirlines.

I've always said, ALPA is only as good as their MEC. Go with an in-house union if the letters alpa scare you. In the end, leadership is comprised of pilots on your seniority list only. That's true regardless of the letters in the name of the union.

It's not unlike the US constitution. We don't let 17 year old people vote either. There is a good reason for these rules.