A big part of the problem is the Railway Labor Act. By the time pilots have the authorization to seek self help, it no longer matters.

I remember all of the Midwest employees rallying against the merger, save the cookie or something to that regard.

Unfortunatly becouse of the f$#%$ing RLA by the time that pilots are allowed to do anything they will be 6-7 years into republic operated Midwest flights.

That wasn't Midwest Employees, that was Tim and his great PR department. He fed Milwaukee the bs.........."We are a home town airline and want to stay that way." Milwaukee was dumb enough to buy into it. Now look whats happening and the general public are the ones to blame.

PS-Being from Skyway we wanted the merger the entire time, we were already being farmed out to Skywest. Now its Midwests turn, maybe you should have said something over a year ago when it started.

"Save the cookie" was part of the company's efforts to attempt to block the proxy battle that Airtran was winning.

Midwests MEC stance on Airtrans takeover attempt shifted from neutral to pro company when it became more clear that Hoeksema was losing control of the board. They figured it would be better to have supported management during this time, as oppposed to later, when the deals details were crafted.

As far as my plea for help from ALPA, in ALPA I am referring to you. Each of you. That is where our strength is! We have been given excellent support from National, but the kind of help we need will only come from a groundswell of rank and file members like yourself. I thank all of our brothers and sisters who have participated in our rally's and picket's.(DALPA, ASTAR etc. ..etc..)

We weren't sure how it would play out when TPG/NWA outbid Airtran, but then we didn't have a choice. The list of promises made then is long.(see savethecookie.com) Now it is becoming apparent, the systematic dismantling of an airline(people) continues, and the CEO is forced to preside
over the carnage he created while he fingers the gold he lined his pockets with. Maybe we are an/the accumulator.

By the way, the Midwest MEC did formally request that Skyway be added to our list.

Tim said NO!

This poster is 100% right about ALPA. If you're counting on them to help, you might as well look for another job. They'll abandon you so quickly if it's in their best interest financially/legally it'll make your head swivel.

Midwest was a great company, had a great product. Now, it's obviously being shredded up and jobs outsourced. Disgusting.

Everyone here is dancing around the subject. We all need to ask ourselves the question, "Why is Midwest still here?"

None of this makes any business sense whatsoever. Why is management so afraid of filing chapter 11 or just closing the doors on an airline that is now smaller than it's feeders? Why are they paying a consulting firm more money than they are saving by furloughing pilots. Why are they spending more money to subcontract Republic than to continue to operate the 717s?

I think it it's all about 100 seat pay rates and eliminating virtually all work rules. The Midwest pilots are just a bunch of lab rats and ALL of the management entities, involved or not, are salvating at the prospect of throwing this into the mix of their own contract negotiations.

This will affect way more than just the Midwest pilots and their frustration is that no one seems to "get it" while they fight over Super Premium Widebody pay and Carrer Expectations.

So, Delta guys -- old and new --does anyone think that we should do something about this? We are the largest group in ALPA now, right?

From dn Wisconsin : "PS-Being from Skyway we wanted the merger the entire time, we were already being farmed out to Skywest. Now its Midwests turn, maybe you should have said something over a year ago when it started"

I think you have it right. It's like that old saying about not standing up for others and when they come for you- no one else is left.

You're absolutly right, Big Blue should have stood up more for Little Blue but in their defense I think there were way more Skyway pilots that made it to Midwest than in most mainline/feeder relationships (at least percentage wise) and the Midwest MEC did try to get them on their seniority list. Their CEOs final act of revenge for the heinous act of joining ALPA was to deny this.