Why would we have to get an 8+% raise to make it worthwhile? If they cost us 1.95% and get us 2% isn't that better than we have now?

Yeah I'm gonna have to go with no

*burp


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It comes down to this. The QOL at SkyWest is far better than at pretty much any other regional. Most people here are happy. Yes, we have our problems, so does everyone. The worst dumpster fires in the industry have unions, therefor, the notion that having a union will solve our problems is clearly absurd. If I have a problem, I can call my Chief and sort it out. I don't need to go through the Union, file a greivance and wait months or years to get an answer.

You have a legally binding contract? Great! When the company violates the contract you have a legal basis for a lengthy lawsuit that you still may not win. Most of the time we are able to work things out informally, though certainly not always.

As for pay? When you compare W2s at the end of the year we make more than most. It has been suggested that to come up with an apples to apples basis for comparison of pay, divide gross earnings by total block. For me, year 18, that works out to over $206/ hr. My pay rate is $115. Now do you see how simply comparing rates is meaningless?

That's not drinking Kool Aid, that's sipping Bourbon.

Actually, that's smoking some good drugs.


Do you think you're not working unless you're blocking?


By that metric, I imagine I have colleagues with pay rates in excess of $1,500 per block hour or more. If that's how you need to slice it to make yourself feel good, dream away. Delusions are free.






.

It's actually 1.9% and it's tax deductible. So your effective dues rate may be lower. But more importantly, a union is more than just a contract. Those dues monies do a lot more than get you a contract.

Inc, who is the only one responsible for that, is doing a great job at that already. Try again.

I love how you fail to include your LCA override. You should join SAPA. Your math skills would be appreciated.

The QOL at regionals varies greatly depending on upgrade times. So Skywest isn't the only one with good QOL. But pilots cannot control that. The only thing they can control, if they have a union, is any QOL items they negotiate. So when upgrade times are not less than 3 years, you can still have some QOL.

Next, the notion that since worst places ha e unions, therefore unions are bad is just faulty logic. I don't need to go any further to explain logic. And like I've said before, a pilot union is so much more than just a contract.

Next, it's great you can call your Cheif pilot and get things fixed or straightened out to your liking. Guess what? That is also required at a union airline. It's called self-help. The difference being that when your Cheif pilot, or scheduling supervisor, or payroll analyst, etc, disagree with you, the union pilot with his legally binding contract has another avenue to deal with it. Many many items in MOUs, LOAs, letters, etc come from settlements that come from these grievances. Most of them are settled on an individual basis which would have never happened without having that avenue that management is required to comply with. In my personal experience and from taking to others, personal grievances take a few weeks. When it's something systemic that affects the pilot group as a whole, it takes months. And that's when the contract is amended. Which brings up my last point on this, you may get your issue resolved individually but if it's a systemic problem, others will have to deal with that issue as well instead of it getting fixed for everyone.

Next, the legally binding contract is not a basis for lawsuits. The contract has a dispute resolution section. You go through the internal process that gets escalated through the three steps. And if there isn't a settlement, the issue is arbitrated by a neutral third party. That is very rare depending on how hostile your management is and yours isn't. In my experience, there's one arbitration about every two years, that includes 7 years under Inc management. So when you say you don't always work things out, when you have a contract, you get another choice.

Lastly, you may feel that your effective pay rate is impressive, but it's not. If it doesn't get close to double of your pay rate, it's not that good. For example, last year, mine was $179 whereas my rate was about $87. This is for half at 11 year pay and half at 12 year pay.