Although, I try to think of one of our pilots that I met before getting hired here. I was on my way to the southwest internal job fair hoping to get an interview. He spent a good bit of time telling me about the good aspects of the company and wished me luck on the job fair and the possibility of getting an interview. He asked what I had planned when I got to Dallas before the Job fair the next day. I told him I needed to get a tie tack because I’d forgotten mine and couldn’t find any in the airport while waiting for my connection in Atlanta. He immediately pulled his tie tack off and gave it to me. This has been a common theme while I’ve been here and I truly am happy to work with the vast majority of folks. I left the Facebook page ten minutes after reading it and haven’t been back to the SWAPA forums either. I’ve gotta keep an eye on the 1/2 full part of the glass.

 

Well said. I was on the SWAPA board once and couldn’t take it, and left the FB page after a short time. Most guys you fly with aren’t represented by the very few negatives on SM, but there are those that are pleasant to you in the cockpit that you know will throw you under the bus when the time comes. They’ll let you go on food stamps and unemployment and then tell you how much they appreciated your sacrifice when you finally get recalled, not having to face any hardship themselves, while they’re bragging about the new RV, boat and plane.

I’m preparing for furlough; our expenses are low (the RE license is current and the CDL-A is almost done) and hopefully will not need the help of an assessment, but it would be nice to know that most of our fellow pilots actually live by the kool-aid they drink and are really there for us.

 

A high percentage guys here are addicted to open time and have been going through a long and painful withdrawal period whose beginnings roughly coincide with the time I got hired on.

I have never felt much a part of this so-called family. What I have felt like is a crasher at a wedding who keeps getting dirty looks from the groomsmen and bridesmaids for trying to cut in line at the open bar.

If I’d have known what this place was all about I don’t know that I would have invested nearly as much time and effort as I did in getting on here.

 

I'm a pretty anti union person at my core, but bear with me on this one. My wife and I have a business and we deal with employees, and real estate taxes.


Lets start with the taxes. We need about $3.5 million in capital improvements that involve structures. We're in agriculture, and while cropand is taxed pretty cheap, structures are not. The amount we pay now in real estate taxes is vugar, vomit inducing and ridiculous! Why do we pay them? UNION PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES! When they hit 50, if they started young, they get 75-90% of their pay for the rest of their lives, as well as medical etc...More salt on the wound, we don't use public schools and 911 is just the number to dial to get the bodies picked up. We're in the boonies, the Sheriff's dept could be up to 40 minutes away. Our ambulance and fire departments are 100% volunteer.


2nd, I deal with employees. We're at a sweet spot right now, but we've had our issues in the past. Our business is "modular" and if we lose feed contracts, or lose contracts for organic grain, we just get smaller automatically. We can do this, because we own half our land, and we rent the rest year to year. Their is absolutely nothing that would stop me from bringing in smaller, irf any seasonal crews, and nothing that would prevent me from permanently sending a full time year round employee home permanently the day before annual bonus's are paid. My family's needs and security come first.


So, GOD FORGIVE ME! Because I've worked 19 years as a very highly paid guy with a lot of perks. I never suffered the hardship of flying an RJ around for less than min wage, and my 401K and separate mutual fund total more than what the company has paid me the past 19 years. Gotta love compounding, employer matching and profit sharing! I have benefited TREMENDOUSLY from being in a union, right?


Maybe, and that's a big maybe! It takes 10 years to get someone to the point where they are suitable to do my job? OR DOES IT? In Europe, you can get a bug up your butt and decide to become an airline pilot, and be in the right seat a year later with your 400 hrs under your belt. Their is a whole slew of them happy to do it just as a subject matter for their Instagram accounts, and they probably make more from Instagram! They also happen to be female and pretty easy on the eyes, but I digress. Aside from all that, I'm not that easy to replace considering the standards here in the US, But anybody that requires less than 2 years of training to replace... WARN SCHMARN, you'd report to work one day only to get handed a furlough notice. I wouldn't even try to get concessions from you.


So God forgive me, I guess I'm the biggest jerk in the world.

 

No. You just aren't an airline pilot as your profession. You are a pilot 2nd and a business owner 1st. Therefore you have a much different lens to look through, and you should keep quiet and just vote on something if and when the union gives you something to vote on. Until then maybe stay off the message boards. And if this job goes away your lens will change quite rapidly.

 

Why is his opinion any less than the guy trying to guilt everyone into concessions?

 

Who knows who the guy is? Lots of Walter Mitty types come on all the time claiming everything from independent wealth to 401k's that dwarf the GDP of Lithuania. And if this guy really was some captain of industry, you think he'd be all over APC on Thanksgiving Day?

Take any and all personal claims you read on here with a grain of salt.

 

I am throwing the BS flag. If it is on the internet it must be true. I know this for a fact, as I read it on the internet.

 

Kernal....Let me correct your error in union thinking. You equate public service employee unions, clerical unions, service unions etc with professional trade/skill unions/guilds. That is an apples to square pegs comparison. Police, pipe fitters, pilots, fireman, lineman, carpenters.....We bring skill, training, work ethic, integrity and overall “skin in the game”. For that we expect from our employer a fair return for our families and our futures. We bring tremendous stability and with that, consistency and an environment where our employers have the greatest likelihood of success. The other “unions “ bring none of that and I, as a lifelong and still active UBC member and a 24yr ALPA member, refuse to be associated with them.
Might I suggest you do a personal life interview. They are great for humility. You may find at the intersections of your success that your “union job” played a pivotal role. Be it a land purchase, an equipment purchase, your credit worthiness or simply paying the bills Having a W2 likely has changed the outcome. Congrats on your successful life outside of the 737....

 

Shack. Well said.