bata

Did TSA and CHQ scab ACA and Air Wis flying? That is where they got the united flying. The last three years TSA got jets as fast as they could and everyone upgraded fast. But ACA furlough'd over 1,000 and then everyone. If they would have held out then ACA and AW might have kept the flying.

Eric Stratton

I would like ALPA to step up to the plate and grow a pair. All I ever here them talking about is the lost wages and pension and they never address the issues that are going on at the regionals. I should clarify that they do alittle but it's all lip service. When they had the last national union meeting I asked my reps what was discussed about the issues at the regionals and they refused to say telling me that it's classified. What the hell is that? Aren't they my union and they can't tell me what is being discussed. Nothing has happened since then either.

The sticker that is floating around that says "one union one voice one mission" is utterly false. They have one resource center (ALPA) but every carrier will sign what ever they want to so it's not one union/voice/mission. Each carrier has it's own union/voice/mission that uses a national tool box called ALPA.

Become a national union, take a stand against all the issues that are going on and not just address them with the lip service that I read when I get my ALPA magazine.

LAfrequentflyer

What are the issues at the regionals you would like to see addressed? I imagine pay / benefits is hear the top.

-LAFF

Eric Stratton

whipsawing/alter ego airlines ie. gojet/freedom types. holding pilots accountable for their own actions.

I was told by my last mec chairman that they were going to start talking to students at schools and telling them not to take low paying pilot postions because it's bring the industry down. I think that's laughable because it's ALPA and it's pilots that are signing these low paying contracts not the students. They are only taking what is out their. Now if it's a startup carrier like freedom/gojets then I understand. Pilots are notorious for blameing others and not looking at it's own pilot group.

johndt

You and the scabs.

LAfrequentflyer

Without one single seniority list you'll always have whipsawing. Right?
I agree - students aren't the problem. They will only be able to take the jobs offered. I can't fault the folks out there just trying to feed / shelter their families.

-LAFF

Eric Stratton

The majors created scope clauses to protect their flying from being farmed out. This is a similar situation but at the regional level and ALPA hardly addresses this issue at all. They don't even say anything when an entire airline gets kicked to the curb. ie. air wisc and ACA. They hardly make a fuss even with alter ego carriers like freedom and gojets. Hell ALPA major carriers are even hiring gojet pilots.

The majors are doing nothing to help the issue when they loosen the scope and give up 70/90 seaters to the whipsaw market. What's next 120 seaters. I was told by my delta buddies that they gave up 70 seaters to get pay like uniteds. They now have lost that pay and the 70 seaters. It would have been funny if someone said to the company "since we're giving up the pay does this mean that we get the 70 seaters back."

thowe21

why don't you goto another regional to "feed your family" other than go jets. There are plenty hiring right now if you are that desperate.

rickair7777

that's not the point...nobody "goes to a regional" and expects to "feed their family" on first year pay...anyone who can get hired at a 121 operation can make plenty more money doing all sorts of other work.

My experience with alter-ego types is that they ALWAYS have an excuse, but the reality is that most just want a fast upgrade, and they think that nobodys looking and that it will not follow them in the future. These are actual alter-ego pilot excuses:

"I signed up but never actually flew a revenue leg" (after being forcibly re-intergrated to his original seniority and demoted back to FO)

"My wife was going to divorce me if I didn't do it" (???)

JustAMushroom

It is a sad but true reality that the freemarket can be dog eat dog. And that good pilots can find themselves out of work (sometimes thru no fault of their own... and sometimes because they were asleep at the wheel and let themselves get rolled by poor managment/MEC).

But again, this SCAB issue is not one of the freemarket fundementals, but rather human greed and the lack of charecter pilots diplay when they knowingly step on the backs of others to get ahead.

An adult, regardless of circumstances, should never knowingly undercut a fellow laborer.

So if offerd a job by BloJets or FlyByNite JETS or whomever..ask yourself...is there a pilot group out there that has a dog in this fight and am I going to subvert their efforts? If the answer is yes...and you take the JOB..you are a SCAB!