Airline Pilot Central Forums

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonneaux (Post 2442504)

SkyWest did help bend you over on that contact. Ironic that they inherited it when they bought Expressjet. Karma.

But, Brad Holt was about the best COO in the industry. When he left I took it as a sign of your imminent demise.

BH was the best COO in the industry? Is this a bad joke? He didn't do anything here except for make excuses. He once told me that his compensation increase didn't count (conversation about snap backs for concessions taken by employees) because his stock options were pretty much worthless anyway. So I asked him that since they were worthless to him, to donate them to the employees...silence. All he had was things like "super regional" (with a carton character of some superman looking guy flying up into the air) "500 aircraft operating in 50 states" and other superlatives to try to make us react to koolaid and feel like this was the place to be. It didn't work because it was only backed up with excuses for failed promises. The demise was imminent when Skywest bought xjt, way before BH was let go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gojo (Post 2443036)

I hear what you're saying, and for the most part I agree with you. But man, it's like, to use the expression, beating your head against the same wall. I do admire your persistence though. It's just that most Skywest people aren't interested. Inc says We must do something about ExpressJet. They're losing money. Must be the union screwing it up. And many buy into it hook line and sinker like they can't think for themselves. I mean it's not like ExpressJet is run completely autonomously from Skywest?

Yeah, I need to spend more time in the gym on those long overnights than killing time here.;)

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Originally Posted by rickair7777 (Post 2443171)

I voted yes in 2006, primarily as insurance (and I'm happy to have alpa at my legacy). I suspect QOL at SKW would be better today if it had passed, but also don't know what unintended consequences might have come about, such as SLI.

The point being that some regional people like to represent alpa as something it's not, in some cases with a cultish religious fervor which far exceeds certain real religions I can think of. It's purely a business proposition, not a brotherly order or religion.

The potential benefits of unions at the regional level are limited... if you hit it out of the ballpark, you're heading for the comair gravyard eventually. The only way that could change is if a dedicated national regional union managed a one-list arrangement (don't hold your breath). Alpa national will of course not go there because the B-scale benefits their largest and most lucrative demographic.

Not even saying shun unions... but understand the limitations and pitfalls.

One last thing...I have to wonder if you spend all this time promoting alpa for SKW to possibly enable a CCP and SLI, thereby saving your job. Anyone who is going to vote for alpa at SKW needs to understand what a common carrier petition is. Might be better off with teamsters for that reason.

Man, you need to get over the whole "unions at a regional are worthless" notion. Like I've told you many times before, and you continually keep ignoring it, a pilot union is a lot more than just a contract. In fact, a contract is something like number three on a list of about four or five!

Second, you bring up comair again as a tired excuse. Comair is no longer because delta was done putting all their eggs in one basket. It's because of comair that every single CPA a regional has with mainline since then has boiler plate anti-strike language. In other words, it had NOTHING to do with compensation! No defunct regional is due to compensation. They've paid regional pilots (even comair) so little that the modest increases didn't make them unsustainable. The current situation with continued increase in bonuses and contract improvements is evidence of that.

Third, even if mainline pilots wanted regional pilots to be paid like they were in 1992 so that they can stuff their own wallets, it doesn't mean they can force any regional mec to agree to that. If any mainline mec told a regional mec not to negotiate for endeavor pay rates, they would literally be laughed out of the room. No mainline pilot as any power in a regional mec. So let's just be done with that excuse as well.

Lastly, I was one of only three of our mec members who jumped on the fee for departure task force to push for what they call today "career protection" by trying to get regional MEC's to prioritize negotiating for seniority portability when aircraft were transferred. This was originally done by Canadian regionals, the mesaba mec, and asa when Skywest bought them. Like any seniority list integration, it wasn't a popular idea. This was back in 2007 when there was a calm in the regional musical chairs. But even when mesa was on the verge of losing their 145s and rumors of xjt getting them, I was still a proponent of them coming over with their seniority. I'm always a proponent of seniority list integrations. Pilot groups are always better off in an integration than separate. When our SLI came out 5 weeks ago, I was happy it was finally done, even though I thought we could do better.

As for the CPP, that had nothing to do with ALPA. That had to do with the supply of pilots and trying to keep pay down. The CPP is a management recruiting tool. It has a good side effect for pilots that wouldn't otherwise interview or give them a second chance.

As for myself, if this place goes under while I'm still here, I'm 100% positive I'll land on my feet. This isn't my only egg or basket. An SLI at this point would do me little benefit. Also, a single carrier petition has nothing to do with both groups being on the same union. See American/us air for an example. So going teamsters wouldn't make a difference. In fact, unions don't come into the picture at all in a single carrier petition! It has absolutely NOTHING to do with unions. If ALPA wanted to, they could've have filed a single carrier petition seven years ago, or they can do it today! The thing that decides whether there is a single carrier, is if the same management group makes operational decisions for both airlines. Or said another way, does each management make operational decisions independently of one another. The fact of the matter is that a single carrier petition can be made tomorrow without you guys being union at all. So let's stop with that excuse as well, shall we?

And one question for you, are you actively looking to move on to a mainline or LCC or are your current plans to retire at Skywest?

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Originally Posted by LAX2MSP (Post 2442864)

You need to take a step back and relax.. Just cause I’ve taken my kids to Disneyland and have Disney in my portfolio doesn’t mean I have the right to tell the employees of the park how to feel and act. Coming on here and telling us we are worthless is nothing short of pathetic.

Yes we appreciate your business and investment, we won’t forget that, and you are correct that without people like you, this company wouldn’t exist, but 99.9% of our passengers / investors aren’t making “know it all” remarks to us in an anonymous forum.

He's probably a big time Disney investor as well (not just stocks by the way), and hangs out at their employee forum as well, deriding people for their opinions and feelings while running his own business.