disillusioned

Neither does removing trips from the bid list so they could put half the SFO domicile on reserve. But that was a small number of pilots and they just hoped that nobody would notice or put up too much of a stink. Or they could just say it was best for the company and everyone would say okay.

For years I have had 3 day trips removed from my bid, making me be away from home for 30 more hours to give me another 2 hours of credit for a 4 day. Now that is finally working its way up the seniority list, it is this big issue. Globalized solution is horrible and nobody should ever vote this in without getting something huge in return.

I don't blame CC for drinking the kool aid. I was the same way before years of reserve killed my spirit. Even with all that, it really is better than most. It's just sad that management thinks there is no benefit to working together.

Crazy Canuck

I can't argue with either of you.

All I can say is I take a different approach in how I view the issues we are having. I see the company doing what they need to do to make ends meet during a tough period of low staffing levels. SkyWest dropped the ball, and they will admit it, and as a result we suffer with tough scheduling until the issue is fixed. As a collective pilot group we can stick our middle finger to the company and say "F U, up yours, you created the problem now fix it yourself," or we can jump on board and do all we can to fill in and help them until the problem gets fixed.

I do believe that SKW management *wants* to fix the staffing problems we are having. Do I think it well ever happen? Ha, likely not. Not without some serious changes going on around here. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt because I see nothing to convince me otherwise, except negative posts and whining on this and the SAPA forums.

If choosing to have a good attitude about it makes me a "kool aid drinker" then so be it! That's not to say I don't have my frustrations (or want to pull my hair out sometimes), but at the end of the day I think we have it FAR better than other regional airlines (like Mesa, since you brought it up brewcity...love that handle btw!).

Crazy Canuck

I will handle it to you, disillusioned, that I agree management is somewhat removed from what is going on in their SGU castle. The best way to fight that is to write to them or call them. At the same time, front line employees (pilots included in this case) are far removed from the behind the scenes management issues today. A little communication from management goes a long way, but it doesn't hurt to take initiative!

NVUS

MT and his gang will be in DEN for the next two days, you can always stop in and voice your concerns. MT is a very approachable person who does care about the employees and their work environment. That's not the kool-aid talking, that's just being honest.

24/48

Why would the XJT MEC agree to something like that? Did the ASA side of the house agree to that?

disillusioned

I wrote a letter and sent copies to CC, JA, SL, AS, KB, SW and the board of directors a couple years ago. Basically letting them know how their decisions affected me and my family. SL was the only one to respond and told me that things would get better. This was when I was on reserve hell. Holding a line hasn't been bad, but these last couple months have been ridiculous. Point is, we have a representative group that should be able to read the forums or get input from the pilots to tell management. What happens is SAPA tells them, they don't believe them and SAPA asks us to write letters or send emails. So if the company won't listen to SAPA, what makes you think they will listen to you?

Fair enough. But what do you think the response would be from SS if you asked for a favor?? I think it would be in line with your quote above. I have needed time off, we had 2 less reserves than what min was, and they wouldn't work with me. So until the company starts acting like we can work together, my help will not be a one way street. Too me, nothing says "I'm sorry you are getting screwed over and not getting any time off with your family" like double time. Until then, it is all just lip service. I think some of the profitability in SW airlines is in the fact that they are not financial responsible for poor planning and we take the QOL hit. TG can tell us all how we have hired 190 pilots since January, but until he also says that we have lost 101 pilots in that same time frame, we are not getting the whole story.

Crazy Canuck

Completely agree with pretty much all in your post, and I tip my hat to you as a long time reserve ist. I can only imagine the pain you have been through. You aren't a SLC CA by any chance are you?

I'm just doing the best with the cards that have been played to me. I agree there are deficiencies in management. They're not perfect and I accept that.

At the end of the day though, dude (girl?), the cards are in YOUR hand. If you need time off to be with your family, you have the tools at your disposal! I have seen people call fatigue for an entire 4 day trip because they were tired, overworked, stressed, and needed time at home. Sure they got a phone call for it, but they were absolutely right to do it! You make poor decisions and judgement when you are overworked. That's what keeps me going at the end of the day, knowing if anything ever happens I end up winning, regardless of SS.

SS is a completely different animal. That department needs a major overhaul. It's more bureaucratic up there than the US government. The majority of them are not bad guys/gals (some of which HAVE done me a favor btw...be it rare) they just don't think about what they do and why they are doing it. I had a meeting with the ORD chief pilot recently and mentioned some concerns I had. To his credit, he completely agreed with me and backed me up on it.

Nevets

No, like I said, it has nothing to do with unions. If SGU decided to merge everything, it would eventually trigger a union vote. Just like it happened with DAL/NWA merger. They don't need anyone's permission if they want to merge employee groups.



The xjt MEC was given advice from attorneys that the language would probably not stick. So they decided to play nice instead. ASA had no say because it was part of the xjt contract, not theirs.

24/48

I think we may be talking about two separate things. I'm referring to the Merger Policy contained in the ALPA C&BL's, not merger/frag language contained in the XJT CBA. Because of the Merger Policy SGU was forced to merge ASA/XJT when they bought XJT. Should Skywest "mainline" (I can't believe I actually heard that uttered by a Skywest pilot) vote in ALPA then the Merger Policy would have to be complied with ultimately forcing the 3 groups together with JCBA and ISL.

Nevets

No. Union status has nothing to do with the decision to merge anything. SGU can do it right now if they want. Or the NMB can find that it's a single transportation system. As for the ALPA constitution & by-laws, there is nothing there about mergers. In fact, nothing in that document or any other ALPA governing document can compel any ALPA pilot group to do anything that isn't in their contract. Those documents are just governing documents. They tell the union how to conduct themselves. It's administrative in nature.

SGU decided to merge ASA and XJT because that was part of the deal for the xjt MEC playing nice. An example would be when TSA bought Compass. Both are ALPA pilot groups but they were not required to merge because nothing in either of their contracts compelled the company to do that.

Again, being union or not has nothing to do with whether companies merge or not. At least not in the technical sense.