I've managed before and have no desire to do it again. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Don't get me wrong, KS is good for this company but I thought his reminder of negotiations past in the last memo was unnecessary. After all, he sits at the table too and has a line to toe. But he sounds a little proud of this TA.

This is an easy NO vote for me. I planned to vote no before it was even released, and after reading it my stance didn't even come close to changing.

If you've learned anything over the last 10 years or so, you know that RL is one of the smartest in the industry, hands down. I think it's safe to say him and FO planned on this getting turned down pretty easily and have their 2nd offer that will be voted in, already in bullet points, and ready to hand over to our MEC/NC.

They need something signed by us asap, which is why they agreed to this extension so quickly.

Think about what the company has done this past year and how much $ they've put into building up TSA. How many positions have they created? Before all of this new flying was officially announced there were memos put out every couple of weeks for like 6 months saying, welcome Bill to the company, welcome Mike to the company, welcome Sarah to her new position... How much money will be coming their way by tripling the size of the company? How many hundreds of millions of dollars are these contracts worth? Everyone in the industry knows TSH doesn't take work on unless they know they will be profitable.

If you think RL and FO weren't planning on throwing us another couple of percent right away or that they can't afford it, i feel bad for you and your shortsightedness.

The lifers will be voting yes on this extension because they are scared we will be pricing ourselves out of business in a few years. Times are changing and all regional contracts are going up. Mainline is making more money than ever and will be able to dish out more money as the years go by. They need the feed.

I don't plan on being here much more than another year or two but I'm still voting no to get as much as I can, and help the industry get closer to what we deserve.

If for some reason I can't get out of TSA, I sure as hell don't want this extension being what we are stuck with for the next few years. And what if at the end of the extension we go into negotiations that take 4 years like the last contract? Do you want to be stuck with this contract extension for the next 7 years?

Easy no vote.

Well he does have to deal with that crowd of geniuses at holdings, because I guarantee they had to sign off on this deal. I've heard many here say they would rather deal with him on a extension than the gang at holdings with a new contract. That being said, I think there is still some ground to gain with this TA.

Management's goal (and responsibility for that matter) is to get our services as cheap as they can. They aren't interested in 100% ratification. Just 50% plus one. This is contract negotiation 101. You don't vote for the first deal unless it is so good you just can't say no. As I said earlier, based on management statements about needing this ASAP I expected a better first offer, particularly in regard to a bonus. I didn't expect much on pay rates because our pay rates were already pretty good. But zero increases for Captains leaves a little to be desired. We'll see how this goes, and hopefully if it fails they can get their heads together and quickly come up with a deal the majority can support. I suspect they already have a backup offer in mind already if this fails.

THIS!!!!!!

News on the MRJ front. First flight in October...

Japan Aims to Crack the Aviation Market With Its First New Passenger Plane in Four Decades - Bloomberg Business

No min day, no trip/duty rig, no significant reserve improvements (unless you consider a whopping 2 hours less of AR to be worthy even though we only get paid for 5), still no commuter hotels, weak bonus/retention pay/attendance pay language, no significant pay raises for the bulk of the pilot group, no significant quality of life gains and a bunch of language for an airplane that has yet to defy gravity and is too heavy for any of the mainline scope clauses as they read today.

I can't vote but I strongly urge those who can to vote no. We do not have an industry leading contract. Until we have language, pay rates and work rules on par with Air Wisconsin, ExpressJet and/or SkyWest we won't. It's industry average, at best. We are on the back side of the growth, without a competitive package to offer potential new hires and an ever dwindling supply of pilots willing to come to the regionals all together, never mind even consider Trans States specifically. Everyone offers bonuses now. Starting pay is $30/hr at both SkyWest and Commutair. One of those two offers commuter hotels. We can do better. I don't care if we are a "cheap" regional, that should not be the concern of our pilot group or our negotiating committee. Our focus should be getting as many gains in writing as we possibly can. The company will take care of themselves.

How many pilots are you getting to apply currently?

It's nearly industry leading in most areas. I'll cancel out your fske no vote with a yes vote

You keep saying ours is industry leading but have yet to point out exactly how so. How is it industry leading? Nearly industry leading isn't good enough and this extension agreement isn't even close to being leading in any category. I've read the contracts for Air Wisconsin, ExpressJet and SkyWest and worked under one of them. Compared to what we have, they are undeniably better. Better pay and/or work rules and/or stronger language. These should be our goal. We won't get an agreement as good as these contracts but there is zero reason our pilot group and our negotiating committee should aim for less.

Without a min day, trip/duty rig, significant reserve improvements, the addition of commuter hotels and stronger and more clear cut language in our current contract we aren't leading or nearly leading anything. We're average at best. We can do better.