TOTD indeed. Talk about poor SA.

 

Because a majority either A. don't believe it'll do anything or B. are content with how things are going.

 

Well it may not be as good as alpa mainline it sounds a bit better that what's going on at Skywest. In my opinion, it's only going to get worse at all regionals with the staffing challenges

 

Why not certified in house representation? Or a RALPA? Just curious why not one has tried something like that yet?

 

And who is going to fund that? You think SkyWest is going to pay SAPA to get certified by the NLRB? It cost to negotiate even after you're certified and would cost way more than anyone is willing to put up.

 

Do you think that it hasn't been tried? 3 drives all failed, SKYW spends a lot to keep unions off property. Why? Do the math.....

 

This exactly... Just some basic numbers:

3800 pilots at SkyWest. We'll say 3000 join whatever in house thing we certify.

Next we'll assume average wage between FOs and CAs is $75,000 (way on the high side)

2% of $75,000 is $1500

$1500 x 3000 pilots is $4.5 million

How long do you think $4.5 in capital is going to last when it comes to employing all the people needed to properly negotiate a contract? Mind you all $4.5 million won't be there upfront.

Now add in the cost of litigating one wrongful employment case. Now two... Skywest could kill the whole thing by making an example of just a couple pilots. As much as I would love to start from nothing and go it alone, financially it would be a disaster. Failure from undercapitalization.

Not saying ALPA is the automatic choice but joining an existing union umbrella like them is the only realistic option here. We don't have enough pilots and we don't make enough money to fund the startup costs. Short of Herb Kelleher showing up and paying for our start up costs (like he did for SWAPA) it's just not a very realistic option to go it alone. We'll need help.

 

I don't like ALPA or teamsters, but I think 1224 teamsters is better for regionals than ALPA. I think ALPA favours the majors too much, and wouldn't help Skywest as much as they should because of their major airline bias.

 

That is rough. I don't notify other crew members to call the company. I'll tell brand noobs it isn't kosher to notify others. "They aren't here sorry". I'll usually call back myself if they're trying to get me, but if you think there's a chance they're trying to tag you, just walk off the plane with a phone to your ear. Gate agent says anything, "smile and wave boys." If your situation happened to me the correct response is 'we copy the gate see you in twenty'. Sorry again.

 

Subtle...smart