As stated above, 9E lost GFK. Not sure who won the bid but the current employees' last day will be late March.
Anyone know how many ground handling stations Pinnacle won and currently has? Haven't heard anything about MEM.

Hate to say it but it sure sounds like the writing is on the wall for Pinnacle working the ramp for DL. They only won a handful of stations during the RFP's and the contracts are good for 3 years...Logical thinking would mean DL would probably bring these stations under DL's wing and keep it in-house as these contracts expire.

Looking at the Regional Elite (RS) website, they have a LOT of cities now...I lost count over 100..wow..

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. Once an airline has employees at an outstation get enough seniority and better pay, they will cancel their contract and give it to "another" company.

By another company I mean another Delta company. It really is the same company, but Delta will cancel ground contracts after 5-10 years and give it to another one of their "companies". It will probably go back to Delta or maybe even Mesaba. Either way employees start out at year 1 pay.

After 5-10 years Delta will probably give it back to Pinnacle. All this whole time the same employees will be do the ground handling, but will have to start over again at year 1 pay.

This is all done so they don't have to pay employees for being there for a while. Safety means nothing to them, just cost savings.

The only way to fix this is the government to mandate Delta has to use its own employees, or for Delta to use employees of the airport. But it has to be one of those options. Otherwise, they will just shift back and forth to start people over at year 1 pay.

This is GOOD thing for all those rampers.

1. Pay increase.
2. Better pass benefits (now they go before any nickel employee)
3. They don't gotta deal with the nickel's shenanigans anymore.

A total win if they hire the same people, which they most likely will.

They win when they start over on year 1 pay?

Yes, because believe it or not, its higher then what they get right now..........

Ramper in GFK said they start off at $7 and change now. With Elite they start at $9 and some change.

#2: definitely better pass benefits - if it's Regional Elite - but even they board by regional seniority now on DL mainline flights. So if a 9E employee with more seniority is listed on a mainline flight and a RS employee is listed on the same flight but has lower seniority, the 9E employee will be first.

It was supposed to have been wholly-owned employees at first but changed it when the program took effect. Either way, RS employees get 18 Int'l Travel Days, which of course is an even number (9 r/t's), whereas 9E gets 3..one r/t and another one-way, then have to buy a ZED - (and try to get back home without any seniority behind all those buddy pass riders)

What I still don't know is if pre-merger Comair, Mesaba and Compass employees (now RS) kept their "Unlimited Transoceanic Travel Days" while any of the newly hired RS employees only get those 18 days??

I'm pretty sure their are "Delta" rampers at GFK making more than $9/hr right now.

Wait for it......... wait for it..................

WHO CARES?

Sorry to those who lost their job.

I know pinchnickle at GPT pays 7 bucks to start... pathetic.

My friend, you are delusional.