50 seat Jets. Uncertain future?

[Freebrd]

Boring Jenny, just boring. Man come up some new material willya PUTZ!

 

[Flyer1015]

Boring Jenny, just boring. Man come up some new material willya PUTZ!

Is General Lee a woman?

 

[On Your Six]

Is General Lee a woman?

Are you Jerry Sandusky?


Godspeed!


OYS

 

[Freebrd]

Is General Lee/OysYoYo a woman?

nah she's a silly little girl and a putz

oh yeah....."Godspeed"

oh and......Bye bye!

 

[flyboyike]

We all know more things are coming up, this whole industry seems to be in the consolidation mode right now. That, is GOOD to know. Some might call that leverage.

I guess I would like to hear your thoughts on why you feel consolidation prospects mean leverage for the pilot group. Consolidation in our industry (and most others as well) has historically meant shrinkage of two (or more) companies into one that is smaller (and ostensibly more efficient) than the sum of the original components. In fact, MBA-types tell us that the very reason to consolidate is to reduce redundancy and overlap and thus become more competitive. You may have a point in that management might want a contract prior to any consolidation efforts, but one would surmise there is only so much they are willing to pay for that convenience, especially if (in their view) consolidation is worth more. Personally, I'm not aware of any mergers (especially in our business) where employee groups realized any substantial benefit, with the exception of those instances where near-dead companies were taken over by stronger ones, and those employees continued to be employed rather than end up on the street.

 

[johnpeace]

I guess I would like to hear your thoughts on..

oh god, really?

 

[General Lee]

I guess I would like to hear your thoughts on why you feel consolidation prospects mean leverage for the pilot group. Consolidation in our industry (and most others as well) has historically meant shrinkage of two (or more) companies into one that is smaller (and ostensibly more efficient) than the sum of the original components. In fact, MBA-types tell us that the very reason to consolidate is to reduce redundancy and overlap and thus become more competitive. You may have a point in that management might want a contract prior to any consolidation efforts, but one would surmise there is only so much they are willing to pay for that convenience, especially if (in their view) consolidation is worth more. Personally, I'm not aware of any mergers (especially in our business) where employee groups realized any substantial benefit, with the exception of those instances where near-dead companies were taken over by stronger ones, and those employees continued to be employed rather than end up on the street.

Leverage for the contracts to be completed sooner, not necessarily leverage for the group as a whole. The big wigs would not want to be "bothered" with contract issues when larger issues are out there, like M/A.

Some mergers have been good for the overall group. Take the DL/NWA merger. Besides fitting like a glove route wise, it has enhanced the balance sheet, and it did lead to a somewhat small recoup of wages taken in BK (a 17% increase over the post BK contract wages for 4 years), hopefully leading to more. The better the revenue picture, the better chance for recapture of lost rates. Last year's profit lead to profit sharing, and my check was over $10K, so that could be considered a good thing for employees, although I would rather see higher payrates instead of the promise of profit sharing. The airline itself has become stronger via some "synergies", like combination of reservation systems, combining ramp personel for the merged company, etc. The company debt has decreased substantially over the last 3 years, from $16 billion a couple years ago to a projected $10 billion in 2013. Employee wise, most of the other groups have voted out unions, which could be construed as good and bad, but they did vote.

Another example is United. They really have a huge opportunity to make a lot of revenue. The problem there is they haven't negotiated with all of their employee groups yet, and they (especially the UAL guys) are really underpaid. The CAL guys aren't that much better, but they are higher than they UAL side. Our CEO made an effort to immediately do a joint contract and work with the different groups. Not everyone was happy, but they made an effort. I see no real effort on the UAL management side yet.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[flyboyike]

Leverage for the contracts to be completed sooner, not necessarily leverage for the group as a whole. The big wigs would not want to be "bothered" with contract issues when larger issues are out there, like M/A.

That was my point, they don't want to be bothered unless that lack of bother costs them too much.

 

[General Lee]

That was my point, they don't want to be bothered unless that lack of bother costs them too much.

Unless they would like us to cooperate with maybe someone new just like we did during the last merger and extremely fast SOC. Just a guess!


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Golden Falcon]

It's beating a dead horse.....I saw the beginning of all this in the early '80's, if the Mainline boys had fought to include the regional kids on their seniority list, then none of this "scope" nonsense would have been needed, but they ostracised us, had no use for us (except when they needed a commute)...so the "sins of the fathers are being visited upon his children" so to speak.......and it's haunted the whole industry ever since....