Airtran Hiring news?

[maxblast72]

Thankfully, most of our pilots are somewhere in the middle. They want a vastly improved contract, similar to Alaska, Hawaiian, etc., and they're willing to strike if they don't get it, although they don't want to strike. That is the reasonable position, and that's what's going to get us what we want.

We don't want everything Alaska has. They have $1.2 billion in the bank and just posted a $85 million net profit in Q3 2009 (one of their best quarterly performances in years) and have thrown 106 pilots on the street this year in the middle of a nasty recession. Is that isn't a moral killer, I don't know what is. I think pilots can understand furloughs when their airline is burning the furniture to heat the house, but in the middle of record profits and tons of accessible liquidity?

 

[scarlet]

PCL--I believe different. YOU have more control with you in the cockpit than when you are on the sidewalk. Yes prepare for a strike and until then, you do your job SAFELY, (ie ASA Pilots disregard Company and ALPA and took things into their own hands) 12 days later a CONTRACT---UMMHH Do your job !! Better when you control the throttle and logbokk=agree? Summer is coming

AT is spending alot of money just to save a little..What they do best. ie hotels in MCO/BWI a month, could just open a base and save most of that money.

 

[Clyde Frog]

Lear- This is pointless. Unless I have your view I am wrong. I have better things to do. Need to change a tire.

Scooby you're not wrong just because Lear says you are. You're wrong because you're under the impression that your union has the ability to secure gains at the table without the pilots ready and willing to strike. That's all we have and not using it is like leaving money on the table. Without a strike, WE HAVE NOTHING, and that's exactly what we'll get.

I'm ready to walk, and that ain't just lip service.

Be careful changing that tire, last guy that did that got fired!

JS

 

[Clyde Frog]

Also, insted of comparing us the "educated work force" how about comparing us to what airline pilots have historically made. Our capts are making FO wages from a decade ago. FO's are making lav truck driver wages. What has happened to this profession is nothing short of disasterous, just do the research. I'm not ready to give up on it yet. We can take it back, but it's not going to come without a cost.

Save your money, go to picketing events and if need be, withhold your services.

 

[Lear70]

Lear - Your right I was obnoxious.

The real hope as I said is that we settle this at the table, get on and enjoy the benefits of some positive realistic negotiations. I do not expect or want you to have my point of view but I also want the ability to express my point of view. We are different. We want the same thing but oppose in our means of achieving such a thing. Not bad really.

Thanks, I appreciate it and I agree with you that everyone should be free to debate their arguments here, that's pretty much the point of an anonymous, private message board like FI.

What everyone reading this thread (non-AAI pilot especially) need to understand is that the majority of pilots here appear to be pi$$ed off because it's gone from pretty decent, to bad, to downright hostile in a few, short years. Pilots are simple creatures. We want to be compensated fairly for our work, respected for our contribution, rewarded for hard work, fly our trips and go home. Pretty simple, really.

When pilots get THIS angry, as evidenced by this thread, it's usually for a reason.

I just would hope that we would quit coming up with problems and start capitalizing on the positives. I orginally posted here because guys are just saying how horrible this place is, it is not great, but my checks have cashed, and compared to the educated work force none of us are doing awful. Change needs to happen - I am in front of the line on that. That is why I discovered my new gig, I also have an appreciation on how much money and benefits associated with that people make. We NEED to make more. We NEED better work rules but there are things that will change and we NEED to realize that.

At the end of the day, most pilots probably agree with you on those things, they just realize that this management team isn't going to budge without a serious stick (strike)... the carrot of "quid pro quo" died about 3 years ago.

My point is that if your that dissatisfied and feel it will always suck then move along. Try something new, take some time off and see what else is out there. You'll discover wether you really like it or not. Life is way too short to work where you hate it. Just remeber when you polish a turd your hands get stinky.

Now if you feel compelled to flame me for wanting improvements but realizing that we will not achieve everything then I guess I reside on the realistic side. I appreciate you swinging for the fences but when you get a double getting on base is better than a strikeout. Good luck to all of us because we really need it. Best to all.

And best to you, as well. I sincerely HOPE a strike isn't required, but I've been saying for about 3 years that a strike is the only thing that will work, and it's interesting to see the MEC leadership finally come to the same realization a couple years later.

I'm betting that most pilots will quietly get back to the work at hand after a new contract is ratified and the messing with pilots, the CBA, and our QOL in general stops... There certainly wasn't this much angst when I was trying to research AirTran back in late '05 and '06.

 

[dicko]

It seems to me that we have two extremes on this thread, and no one in the middle (the reality). We've got some that seem to think that we shouldn't even be considering a strike, while others seem to relish the idea and think we shouldn't even be considering Alaska rates, as if they're too low. Both of these sides are ridiculous.

On the one side, you need to realize that you have no leverage if you don't prepare for a strike. Without the credible threat of a strike, management has no incentive to bargain. If they believe that the pilot group won't carry through on a strike, then they can just sit back and wait for the NMB to release us, because they know that the pilot group won't have the balls to use the leverage that the NMB has given us. Not a smart strategy. The credible threat of a strike, and the willingness of the pilot group to carry through on it, is absolutely essential for effective bargaining under the RLA.

On the other side, however, you need to realize that expecting something like a 50% pay raise for FOs is absolutely laughable. That would put our 7-year FOs making far more than 12-year FOs at Alaska, Delta, AMR, etc. No NMB, even the Obama NMB, will even consider releasing you with such ridiculous demands. You would be in the same position as the APA, with the NMB not even bothering to schedule negotiating dates for months at a time. Sound productive? Of course not. On one hand you seem to want to strike, but on the other hand you want to make demands that will ensure that the NMB will never even consider allowing you to do so. Time for reality, guys.

Thankfully, most of our pilots are somewhere in the middle. They want a vastly improved contract, similar to Alaska, Hawaiian, etc., and they're willing to strike if they don't get it, although they don't want to strike. That is the reasonable position, and that's what's going to get us what we want.

You sound awfully familiar

One more time, just for you ....

Aim higher than Alaska rates . It can be done. Even if the ALPA lawyers say it cant. When people said " at least Alaska " it didn't mean "at most Alaska".

If you think the HA rates are anywhere close to satisfactory then you have a nasty shock around the corner.

This is a ten year contract for AirTran pilots. Unless a bus hits the current management group. Heaven forbid.

Disclaimer: No offense was intended or implied to any AK or HA employee.
Goal was to encourage and educate the poster that the 'industry standard' should never be the aim. Especially this industry, at this time.

 

[Wesb737fo]

Is this newhire class 717s or 737s

Since no one seems to want to answer your question, I will take a shot. Right now it looks like a lot of 717 guys are bidding into the 48 737 vacancies for the MKE base. Best guess would be a majority of new hires would be on the 717.

 

[j41driver]

If you hate it that much then leave...

That's part of the problem around this sh*thole. Too many a**holes that "have theirs" and just tell the rest of us to leave if we don't like it. How about trying to make this a better place to work for yourself and the guy sitting next to you instead of telling us to leave.

 

[ERfly]

Not to get off the track of bashing AirTran, but I'm assuming if one were able to get his application in before the window closed that he/she may have a good shot at this round of hiring?

 

[JerryLundegaard]

Hard to say, but one could speculate that they plan on hiring after the poolies are all onboard.