Cappy said:
So let me get this straight. You do not work at ACA, have not seen the TA in complete form, have not spoken with ALPA National reps, have not confered with our MEC or Negotiating Committee and you have the audacity to get on a public webboard and tell everone here that you know exacly what is good for us?
First of all I didn't tell anyone that I know what is good for you and you are right, I don't work for ACA. Maybe I don't know what is good for you but
I do know what is bad for my group and for all other regional pilots and that is concessions being offered by YOU, by AWAC and by SKYW.
I don't need to see your TA "in its complete form" to know that
it guarantees you absolutely nothing other than lower wages and lower per diem. Now if the TA (which you apparently support does offer something good, does guarantee you something .... why don't you tell us what it is? I challenge you openly to do so.
As far as the pay rates proposed in your TA it happens that I do know exactly what they are for each year of longevity, for both Captains and FO's and
I also know the exact amount by which it undercuts my contract.
I was trying to be nice, but since you want to be adversarial I'll tell you bluntly .... I don't really give a dam* what you do to yourselves, but I do care what you do to the pilots at my airline and the rest of the regional industry. We didn't strike for 89 days, incidentally after your MEC rolled over, only to have you roll over again and undercut everything we accomplished for what I think is foolish and illogical reasons and lack of cojones.
Whether you like it or whether you don't, the truth is that
your TA unnecessarily gives up what you already have and guarantees you NOTHING in return. Not even a snap-back when the mess is over.
I'm not going to throw rocks at your MEC for I know them and they are good people. That does NOT mean that I think they are right, for I don't in this case. I think they are taking advice from the wrong people. That brings us to your reference to "ALPA National Reps." Well buddy, I know them too and I'm intimately familiar with the kind of "advice" they dish out. That kind of advice you can do without and so can I.
Everything has a history and so do they. I've listened to the head of National's Representation Department tell the Chairman of the ASA negotiating committee, in the presence of the NMB Chair, that their desire to get the equivalent of the CMR contract was "unrealistic". ASA voted down their TA anyway and they got a better agreement.
I've heard them.... the National Reps., tell the Comair pilots way back in 1991 and again in 1992 that our expectations were also "unrealistic". We voted down our TA too, and we got a better contract. In our most recent negotiations, they told us that what we wanted was unrealistic and unachievable over and over again. The Executive Administrator went so far as to send us all a mailgram, during our strike, encouraging us to accept and unacceptable agreement. We voted down the TA that they tried to force us to take, not once but twice including while we were already on the street with the Company threatening to shutdown our airline. Result, we had to strike, but we got almost everything that we wanted. The head of the EFA has a history of concessionary bargaining at EAL, is one of the people along with the then Secretary of "national" that recommended the tragedy that is the Eagle pilots 16-year contract. I could go on and on but it doesn't really matter. Suffice to say, their advice is crap as far as I'm concerned and I couldn't care less what they say.
What is important is what YOU agree to and it's important to me not because I want to tell you what to do, but because I don't want what you do to wind up forcing my group to be subjected to the same garbage.
In other words, I don't want the pilots at my airline to have to eat a sh*t sandwich because of a mistake that your MEC and its national advisers make. Is that clear enough? I have a great deal of respect for the ACA pilot group and hopefully a majority of your pilots are smart enough not to let this happen.
Unless you have attended a presentation by our MEC and Negotiating committee then all any of you can offer is speculation and conjecture. I came here to post the details of the TA but it would do little good.
According to the reports of your fellow pilots who do work for ACA, your road shows were full of doom and gloom and speculation about what
might happen if you don't do this. There was NOTHING about what
will happen if you do roll over because the truth is
they don't know.
I challenge you again. Tell us what you KNOW you will get if you take concessions. Since I am uninformed and you are informed, tell us. I would welcome your being able to prove me wrong.
Here are a few examples of what I know.
First you have agreed (TA) to pay scales for an airplane that you do not have now and which your TA does not guarantee that you will ever have, i.e., the CRJ-700. That is an airplane that we are currently flying.
On the Captain side you have undercut our current contract rates in 2004 as follows:
Year 6 ... -$8.72 Year 12 ... -$12.10 Year 18 ... -$14.51 per hour
On the FO side your have undercut our contract as follows:
Year 2 ... -$6.72 Year 4 ... -$7.15 Year 6 ... -$7.59
In the CRJ-200 on the Captain side you have (TA) undercut us by;
Year 3 .... -$5.18 Year 6 ... -$5.68 Year 12 ... -$6.32
On the FO side
Year 2 ... -$3.01 Year 4 ... -$3.19 Year 6 ... -$3.41
If that's not enough there are other areas of your TA that also affect our compensation negatively. If you dont' think that will hurt us then you don't have a clue.
If your Company was in danger directly or losing money and you had to do these things, I would be much more tolerant. However you are NOT in danger, someone (the Bain Group) or perhaps your friends at ALPA National (who by the way also "advised" Mesa pilots to do what they have done) has convinced you (and AWAC) to believe that you are in danger, and the SKYW folks are drinking the same Kool Aid. As a consequence WE are being placed in jeopardy by the actions of your groups and our own union. It is time to think for yourselves and stop following blindly the "advisers" who have other interests.
So if what I said ruffles your pin feathers, that's just too bad. You have more than ruffled mine, you have me totally P!ssed Off.
There is no need whatever for this. It is motivated by fear and fear alone and you all should be voting this TA out of existence and Skywest should do likewise. If we are forced to copy this gross stupidity, it will take more than a decade to recover those wages.
