Which is caused by management stalling. Skywest can't afford to get left in the dust pay wise by its peers. You are also quoting worst-case scenarios.

It's funny, whenever anyone says "it could be worse", they almost always refer to eagle.

Correct - this would never happen at AA, DL or UA....

Maybe, but seniority has always been, should always be, and must remain a double edged sword. And while people may have been displaced or down graded, at least the written rules were used.

Can that be said here? Ask a SEA or PDX CRJ pilot how the displacements worked?

Consider this;

We have a situation similar to the Boeing MAX, in that that model may not even fly again this year, but maybe sooner, who knows? It’s been what, 4 months now? I haven’t kept track? Let’s say one of our fleet types is grounded for the foreseeable future. Do you really think the company would pay 75 hours to everybody to go on a three week fishing trip? Do you really think they would furlough in reverse seniority to only one of their fleet type that is flying? Train thousands of guys to fly a different type because it was written that way in an unenforceable poorly written document that really has zero legal bearing? Or do you think some cunning accountant would legally keep one side of the airline flying and cut out the cancerous side with some choice words to keep the share holders happy?

I’m pretty sure I know what would happen. And don’t say it isn’t possible, many years ago every CRJ in the world was grounded. Some S/N’s for a few days and some for many weeks. As I said what if what has plagued the MAX were to happen so to say the 175?

If you think the realm of seniority would be honored, I don’t know what to tell you. Because it won’t. Company need is what has always prevailed, and that is not going to change unless the pilot group decides to protect themselves.

I am afraid you are absolutely correct if this ever happened.

JetBlue - Joined ALPA 2014, first CBA 2018
Virgin America - Joined ALPA 2015, first CBA 2016 (granted, this was due to Alaska merger)
CommutAir - Joined ALPA 2008, first CBA 2011

Those are the three most recent US airlines I’m aware of that have organized. None took five to eight years as you claim.

Secondly, do you really think that in the current hiring environment for regional pilots Skywest can afford to remain stagnant for an extended time period?

I honestly don’t know. I’m just relaying what she said. This was certainly back in the up or out days so I don’t know how she would still be employed by Skywest when she told me this is if in fact she actually went to upgrade training and didn’t pass.


But Check Complete seems to be corroborating the story.

That is a different topic. It seems the discussion is how seniority is used. Not whether certain airlines displace a lot or not. You can be at an airline that displaces like crazy but if seniority is followed in accordance to the contract, then there isn’t really a seniority issue.

A ratified contract may take a couple years but what does happen immediately if you certify a union is that you go into status quo. That basically means that management can not change its current practices when dealing with pilots. In essence, your current book and past precedences and practices become a contract until you negotiate a new one. They can no longer reinterpret, add, change, delete, emphasize, etc., your current book. Any of those changes would have to be negotiated and ratified. This not only goes for work rules but also the way discipline is handled. In fact, the first thing that would be negotiated, even before a contract, is a dispute resolution process that complies with the RLA and NMB regulations, that include the ability to have a neutral arbitrator make the final decision.

Even if we assume your guess of 5-8 years is correct, the sooner you start the clock, the sooner you get to the end. Otherwise, 5-8 years later people are still making the excuse that it’ll take 5-8 years. So if it’s 3 years to reach the goal of a contract, then it’s better to start sooner rather than later.

And most of the time, it was PSAs fault why things got so bad at Eagle.