Preferential hiring for Comair pilots

[waveflyer]

Hawaiian is in pretty much continual hiring mode for the foreseeable future (retirements and projected arrival of A/C over the next 3 years. We have embarked on selective international expansion that is working even better than they anticipated so by all accounts it will continue.
E-mail with my rep today and he confirmed that the MEC will request priority interviews for you guys. No promises yet but they were very receptive to giving the AQ and ATA guys priority under the same circumstances.
We had a change in the MEC Chair position and your chair had a hard time contacting us as a result. It's being rectified.
Gotta go or I would elaborate.
Good Luck guys

Though not hiring at the moment, I will call our union and people department as well. For those qualified, this is a good gesture for a group of pilots who did attempt to stand up to outsourcing and make regionals livable places to work.

Agreed, class move Dan.
And maybe start a thread on your flying in the day- a lot of us don't know these companies and how they operated.

 

[maru657]

It seems like the Delta MEC should insist that all Comair pilots are hired. Aren't both groups ALPA and wasn't Comair owned by Delta? It will be interesting to hear what the ALPA MEC has to say regarding this.

 

[waveflyer]

I don't know about that- what about all the other delta connect pilots flying trying to get on with big D- it'd be nice if skywest, (all 3) and republic would help out the FOs and everyone help out the capts based on quals-
Just do your best where you are- going out of business is something we all can face and seniority means pilots can't just hop to the next company we're qualified for and be fine. it'll be tough enough even with help.

 

[Jim]

I'll go against the grain here...

There are a lot of furloughed airline pilots out there. To single Comair plots out for preferential treatment is unfair to those that have been on the street longer. If there is any preferential treatment, it should be for all furloughed pilots.

I'll also go so far as to say that furloughed major airline pilots should get preferential treatment at the major airlines over furloughed regional airline pilots.

I also think military pilots should get preferential treatment due to their service to our country and the sacrifices they have made.

And I think that anyone with an internal recommendation should get preferential treatment as they are a known quality by someone already at the airline.

So maybe what I'm really saying is that hiring should be based on qualifications, not preferential treatment.

And yes, having been furloughed twice, I have "walked a mile in their shoes".

 

[titans10]

I'll go against the grain here...

There are a lot of furloughed airline pilots out there. To single Comair plots out for preferential treatment is unfair to those that have been on the street longer. If there is any preferential treatment, it should be for all furloughed pilots.

I'll also go so far as to say that furloughed major airline pilots should get preferential treatment at the major airlines over furloughed regional airline pilots.

I also think military pilots should get preferential treatment due to their service to our country and the sacrifices they have made.

And I think that anyone with an internal recommendation should get preferential treatment as they are a known quality by someone already at the airline.

So maybe what I'm really saying is that hiring should be based on qualifications, not preferential treatment.

And yes, having been furloughed twice, I have "walked a mile in their shoes".

agree.

 

[waveflyer]

The difference is a furloughed major airline pilot still has a # somewhere-
But overall I agree with your post-

 

[CheapFlyer]

There are 1437 furloughed United pilots who are not getting preferential treatment. They do have a dibs at UAX carriers, but no respectable airline has given them preferential treatment.

 

[Mad Dog 80]

Right on 100%. I have been furloughed 3 times, living on unemployment for up to 6 months at a time. Let the best qualified pilot get the job.

 

[bluechunks]

For those qualified, this is a good gesture for a group of pilots who did attempt to stand up to outsourcing and make regionals livable places to work.

I propose that DAL give Comair pilots the same preferential treatment afforded to furloughed DAL pilots when the shoe was on the other foot and a flow back was suggested.

ps I'm not sure that I'd agree that the Comair guys stood up to outsourcing. Even if not by choice, they were the outsourcing.

 

[waveflyer]

I understand the notion in your first paragraph- and certainly not all comair pilots are qualified-
But here's the source of all my criticism towards delta, DALPA, and outsourcing-: the creation of and validation by pilots of a whipsaw market, designed to introduce artificial competition that subverts seniority that major airline pilots live by.
So when one of your whipsawed companies go out of business, in large part bc they got a good contract and had pilots with significant longevity- there is an increased responsibility on DALPA's part to right that wrong- esp for the average line pilot that had nothing to do with the comair MEC's decision that most thought was ludicrous.
most regional pilots want to move on to a major, and so most could see themselves furloughed-
But the flip side to the lifer's argument is that the whipsaw market DALPA had a hand in creating treated comair as second class citizen's.
This is not a chicken or egg debate. DALPA started it by allowing the morph from codeshare with independent airlines to multiple airlines under an overlord airline.

 

[nimtz]

With the coming parking of 50's there will be plenty more liquidations coming. Gonna need a lot of prep interview groups. What seems like a nice idea quickly complicates fast. Let's remember how well LUV did with pref interviews for the ATA guys...

 

[HalinTexas]

With the coming parking of 50's there will be plenty more liquidations coming. Gonna need a lot of prep interview groups. What seems like a nice idea quickly complicates fast. Let's remember how well LUV did with pref interviews for the ATA guys...

Didn't get a whole lot of help from ALPA carriers either. CAL, maybe, but as many or more went to Asia.

Whatever, I'm over it.

 

[MCDU]

Preferential hiring only to the pilots hired after the pft era. Comair was the poster child in this despicable practice back in the 90's.

M

 

[Helos2Galaxy]

I will not support any preferential hiring (I have no say and am a line pogue).

U can thank Larson for his self serving horrendous behavior.

 

[Helos2Galaxy]

Lawson? Whatever.

 

[Ben Franklin]

There are 1437 furloughed United pilots who are not getting preferential treatment.

I thought they all were offered a slot, in seniority order, flying 737's on the CAL side of the UCH house?

 

[freightdogfred]

When Brand X up in KDAY went Tango Uniform I got no preferential treatment from my ALPA brothers down in CVG, even though I willingly ponied up over 500 clams in a special "strike fund" assessment from ALPO. The only thing I got was some pencil-necked geeky 26 year old kid askin me "Why did I want to work at Comair" (ummm, I need a job?) and "Why should Comair hire me?" (Guess he forgot the whole strike assessment thingy, an me bein a fellow ALPO pilot an all)
I wish no will on anyone, but what comes around goes around in this bizness.

 

[CheapFlyer]

I thought they all were offered a slot, in seniority order, flying 737's on the CAL side of the UCH house?

They were.

This thread is about preferential hiring at other carriers. No other respectable airline offered assistance to those guys, not one.

Then again, not much hiring has happened over the past three years.

 

[jetflier]

I think that pref hiring is a good thing, and the courtesy should be extended to the Comair Folks.

 

[FmrFreightDog]

I think that pref hiring is a good thing, and the courtesy should be extended to the Comair Folks.

Respectfully disagree....

TO: Comair Pilots
FROM: J.C. Lawson, Comair MEC Chairman
DATEecember 16, 2002
Your MEC met in CVG with the Delta MEC Chairman, Captain Will Buergey, at his request, to discuss preferential hiring of furloughed Delta pilots at Comair. Through this letter, I hope to dispel rumors and provide a more thorough understanding of the purpose and outcome of that meeting.

The Delta MEC, while in session at the bi-annual October Board of Directors meeting in Hollywood, Florida, formally directed the Delta MEC Chairman via resolution to meet with the Comair MEC Chairman to seek preferential hiring for furloughed Delta pilots at Comair while allowing them to retain their Delta seniority.

The general philosophy held by the Comair MEC is:

We are sensitive to the regrettable plight of all furloughed pilots in our industry.
We encourage our management to hire pilots who seek a future at Comair.
We have formally approached Comair management and our management has agreed to preferential hiring of furloughed ALPA pilots.
We agree with our company's policy that requires prospective Comair pilots to resign their seniority at their previous carrier.
We believe our Company's industry-standard policy requiring seniority resignation is sound and wise. It promotes the general health and welfare of all Comair employees and serves to protect the future of our company.
At our meeting in CVG, Captain Buergey offered preferential hiring to Comair pilots if the Comair MEC would recommend to Comair management that they hire furloughed Delta pilots and allow them to retain their Delta seniority.

Your MEC responded that hiring any pilots at Comair who do not resign their seniority at their previous carrier gives rise to numerous substantive concerns. The Delta MEC's offer of (future) preferential hiring at Delta is not sufficiently substantive to overcome those concerns and solicit Comair pilots' support. We suggested three alternative concepts, any one or all of which might lead to a mutually beneficial solution:

Relax the Delta PWA, Section 1, seat restrictions imposed upon Comair and ASA that limit our growth in 70-seat and larger airframes.
Negotiate Delta Brand Scope language with Delta management that defines all Delta flying within the Delta revenue stream to be performed solely by Delta, Comair, and ASA pilots.
Negotiate a plan for future integration of our Delta, Comair, and ASA pilots seniority lists that fairly recognizes the efforts and contributions of all.

The Comair MEC stands ready to work with the collective MEC's to bring about change that makes sense in a challenging economic environment and works for all pilots who perform flying under the Delta brand. As we stated in the Tuesday, December 3rd meeting, our door is still open.

COMAIR MEC
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL
SUITE 120 3940 OLYMPIC BOULEVARD ERLANGER, KY 41018
859-282-9016 FAX 859-283-5533