ACA Negotiating Update

[Beechnut]

Excellent Mayday911. That was perfect.

Good Luck ACA and SkyWest!

S.

 

[CRJ Driver]

The reason the current UAX carriers had to rebid was because United spent millions of dollars on an outside consulting group to help them maximize profits, thats right profits, from the Express network. So this consulting group came up with a scheme to help us all (use sarcastic tone). United was the first network carrier to pay their regionals a fee per departure, that is now history. The new bid is based on block hour. Within in this bid per block hour are 7 line item bids. They are: Pilot costs, F/A costs, mx costs, a/c operating costs, profit margin, duration, and something else I forgot. United is going to take the whole package and asses who will make the most money for them.

With pilot costs a direct item in the bid, there is no way that any of the current carriers could compete w/ the newcomers to the party. The consulting group specifically invited lower paid carriers to the party in order to get the current carriers to "get in line" with what United is willing to pay.

TSA, Chatauqua, Mesa, and one other (nobody knows for sure who that is) are all lower paid across the board, not just the pilots. From what I understand the CHQ pilots are in negotiations right now, and TSA's pilot contract is up in a couple of years.

AWAC is at an advantage to most of the other regionals bidding on the contract. Since they are privately owned they can bid on a lower profit margin than the publically held companies. From what the ALPA attorney says that is a very significant number. While times were good AWAC was making a 4.8% profit, while Skywest and ACA were in the neighborhood of 15%. This is why the new AWAC pilot contract LOA did not have to come down to the level of Mesa. 12 days off, scheduled trip and duty rigs (not look back), 75 hour guarantee for all pilots, plus pay rates still 5 dollars higher and hour, etc.

Just passing on the info...good luck to everyone in negotiations right now, I hope you are not hurt too bad by the new AWAC agreement. Think of it this way...Mesa set the new industry standard and then AWAC raised it a little, now its your turn (Okay maybe that doesn't help at all).

Mayday.

mayday911 you sound like one of the moron f/o's that
belived the MEC and NC doom and gloom story.
There plan worked on you I see. At least the ACA
guys have some balls. Oh and give me a good reason
why you voted yes.

 

[treetopflyer]

negotiations resume today, no deals yet.

 

[Mayday911]

CRJ Driver,

I post the information that was presented to me, right or wrong, and I am a moron? Go ahead and f*ck yourself, and for your information I can't even vote and therefore didn't. I was at AE before coming to AW and therefore no that it is giant sh*t sandwich we took a bite of, and was hoping not to have to do it again. So once again go f*ck yourself and have a nice day.

Mayday

 

[CRJ_Driver]

FYI= There is a CRJ Driver on this board.
I AM CRJ_DRIVER

ACA Pilots:

The UAL bid submission deadline was May 10th. It is May 13th today and the union is negotiating with the company at the company's request, per the 800 hotline.

So, in effect the company (ACA) submitted a bid for flying to UAL using a lower cost structure. If no agreement is reached...the bid reverts to our current cost structure. If the 10th was the deadline and NO agreement was reached by the MEC and the company, why the hell are we still talking? It must be that bad for our MEC to still want to talk and my fellow pilots that is sad.

On the good side of things, no substandard agreement has been reached. I wish AWAC had more testicular fortitude than they displayed by accepting the TA...but no hard feelings AWAC. Its the law of supply and demand and general economics.

Unfortunately, I never experienced the industry like depicted in Catch Me if You Can. That would have been nice.

Alas, instead of a nice respectable restaurant in which to eat...I will be sauntering into the grocery store giving my food stamps to the cashier in UNIFORM...b/c at ACA...at lease we have the testicular fortitiude to have this in our new TA...if one will be reached: (Keep in mind MESA pilots, have to take their uniform off)

An ACA pilot, will wear his uniform while presenting food stamps in which to purchase food for his comsumption. Furthermore, the ACA pilot shall at their discretion, be allowed within earshot of the public to state which airline they fly for and how crappy the industry has become.

Thanks!

 

[KingAirKiddo]

I was under the impression from listening to the hotline that ACA management has not yet submitted the bid. In effect, they ignored the Bain Group deadline in order to keep playing the "Let's Make a (concessionary) Deal" game with the union. There was a statement something to the effect that United wants our bid as soon as possible.

Once again...blah, blah, blah (sorry to steal your line walkthasky, but that effectively summarizes how I feel about the whole mess).

On a side note, does anybody have any information on how many furloughed Blue Ridgers have gotten called for interviews/received job offers with PSA? Today's "official" announcement of CRJ's for PSA has certainly peaked my interest. Ironically enough, I had a PSA application last summer that I was getting ready to submit when I got my ACA clas date, so I never sent it back in (sigh).

Later...

KAK