Quote:
Originally Posted by bluebrother
explain to me how JB is ignoring the concerns of the pilot group. if you look at the survey's from last year and see what JB is doing to correct those issue's, i would say management is 100% more responsive than any legacy or LCC carrier.
with the reality of THE INDUSTRY i.e. too many seats/price elasticity, we are not going to see a pay increase in the near future. remember, JB really did not make a profit in 4Q 2004 (it's called creative accounting). so to believe that WE DESERVE a raise, possibly to give it back (which the southwest pilots will have to do if oil stays above $50.00) is not wise, its foolish.
our reality today, is to have longevity. if we FOLLOW the typical ALPA mentality, we will end up like the UNITED, DELTA, USAIR, SOON TO BE NORTHWEST AND YES, SOON TO BE SOUTHWEST PILOTS. (if you dont believe me, study their last quarter earnings report)
Bluebrother,
I would say that management is 100% more responsive than the legacy carriers, They do communicate better with us in some areas, but overall they have been pretty unresponsive to our needs and desires.
Yes there has been ther 4Ps and the QSO. The 4Ps were things that needed to be done to correct problems in our initial programs, and to draw on the experience of a bigger pool of knowledge compared to when JB was new and a couple of guys with limited/no airline experience wrote the program. The QSO was was created to try and again fix things in our scheduling and manning areas that had many problems that have always been there, but were ignored or overcome by extra work by our crew members vs smart planning and fair treatment. Both of these areas were "empires" created by those that created them. Well, both emperors are now gone and things are being fixed (I hope).
But remember, these are systems that needed to be fixed. Yet there has been almost no response to our needs. No cost of living increase In almost four years! We have lost 10% of our buying power since the current pay scale took effect. Take into account massive increases in healthcare that we are paying for. I don't see them doing anything to help carry the burden. Just pass it on to the employee. Hey, I would rather have a pay raise and reduced profit sharing. Profit sharing that goes into my 401K doesn't help pay the rent. The way I did the numbers, it would take a 1% reduction in our profit marign to give us (every single JetBlue employee) a 2.5% cost of living raise. So, every year we don't get a cost of living raise, is just the company using us to prop up the annual profit margin.
Can JB afford it? You bet the can. 9% down to 8% for an annual margin is still better than all the other majors. The majors have recently pushed thru 5 separate fare increases. Yet JB only has done one. Hey, raise the ticket prices one dollars and apply the entire increase to employee pay. That will give over $125 per flight, or over $10.5 million dollars for pay increases. That would be $1500 per employee for the year (if evenly split among all employees). I agree that SWA's pay raise was excessive and only could be supported by the hedges they currently enjoy. Will they give it back later? I don't think so. But SWA will have to be careful. Note, SWA pilots and FA a also getting an annual cost of living rasie each year. But they did deserve some type of raise. We deserve the same thing. If JB can predict and manage the annual increase in aircraft MX cost as we grow and our planes get older, they can also plan and account for 2.5-3% annual pay raise. Again, we the employee, should not bear the brunt of JetBlue's growth by not being compensated for what inflation is doing to our purchasing power.
We will survive, even if we get the pay raise we deserve. Remember, it is a cost of living adjustment to correct for inflation, not a massive 20-30% raise. Yet, if we don't get this fixed soon, the mighty UNION may be formed and force the company to give us a big 20-30% raise to correct the unfair treatment of our employees for bearing the burden of no cost of living pay raise for years. Its the pay me now, pay me later deal. A little bit every year is a lot better for everyone vs a big one later.
Just my opinion....
FNG