ASA: Growth or Contract?

[Truckdriver]

When XJT or SKYW buys ASA you won't have anything to worry about because you will all be screwed. I project that DAL will sell ASA within the year to get cash and if SKYW is the buyer you will REALLY be screwed. If XJT happens to be the buyer the ALPA merger policy will apply and you won't be screwd as bad, but you'll still get the short end of the stick.

 

[FL990]

Cool, lots of replies so far, and they all say the same thing. Now, I am not asking the question with the notion that there is a right or wrong answer...but i do think that each path has a stream of consequences that we will have to live with...

Ok, so the common theme that I am getting is take the contract...definitely very valid. As one person put it, we have to stop taking the carrot at some point. Very good observation. So, the next question is then this...is the regional no longer a stepping stone? Is it now a place where people are coming in there 20's and 30's and saying, "this is it for me."? You see, I agree with all of the above statements...the growth spirts will end eventually and turn into a constant growth stream over an indefinite period of time...the masive growth of the late 90's and early millenium was due to a very large shift in trends in the industry...(aka, the massive introduction to the regional jet). We all salivated, we all got "star-y" eyed....and we all shot our D1(k$ off. And now we are stuck living with the consequences.

But my point in originally asking the question is this....THERE ARE TWO CHOICES HERE, in my opinion...no more, but also no less. And these two views are both valid and healthy. But sometimes we hear other opinions...opinions driven by emotion and ignorance...by the whiners. These include the desire to put ASA out of business because scheduling extended them for a 2hr trip...this kind of crap is rediculous...what does it solve to cripple the company we work for. You see, I take this attitude personally, because I have a lot invested in my career just like everone else at the this company. I am a rational thinking person, and ration tells me that puting ASA out of business accomplishes nothing but puting me out of a job again. Whether you like it or not, management is NOT the ENEMY. For every one enemy, there is another...so if they are an enemy, so are we...and we are not the enemy either. Lets face it, they aren't doing anything that we aren't doing. We want a contract that pays us the most we can get, for working the least that we can. And if it were up to them, we would pay them to fly there airplanes. It is not a personal thing, its business, and this violating the contract intentionally...It has to stop. But constant complaining solves nothing. We need to get creative and figure out a way to make it stop....LEGALLY, not by going out and cutting the tires in MTY and then writing it up.

More thoughts later...

 

[49W]

I would say contract. The industry has changed forever. Now, many more people will be at the regionals for their entire career than before. Contracts written before at the regionals were at a time when people used the regionals as a stepping stone to the majors which brought much better pay and in most cases a better quality of life. In previous years, newly hired FOs at the regionals could reasonably expect to upgrade 2 years or less after being hired. Living off of an FO's wage isn't as painful then. Now, we're in it for the long haul, and many FO's coming here now will very likely see upgrade times closer to eight years or possibly more. We have alot of relatively young captains here, so there won't be a steady stream of retirements in the near future. I don't know if what I'm saying will be the case, and I hope it's not. I'm just a pessimist. I guess being that way keeps me from being disappointed.

 

[CF34-3B1]

Now that DALPA has agreed to the TA, maybe Greenjeans will finally instruct ASA's negotiators to negotiate.

I was here under George and John, and I was here to march with the CMR guys during the 89 days.

Personally, I'd rather sell cars for a living than see this pilot group prostitute itself for growth. (Not that I think we ever would.)

HeII, most car salesmen make more than our FOs anyway.

 

[Lolikoka]

Make It a Career

Contract, Quality of Life, a Career. I left the constant misery of a law practice to live the lifelong dream, thinking at the time that ASA would be a short stop on the way to big money made easy. Things have changed, and I turn 40 next month. ASA will most likely be my career (with a law practice on the side). Our next contract needs to be a career contract, or my vote it to carry picket signs.

 

[FL990]

Now that DALPA has agreed to the TA, maybe Greenjeans will finally instruct ASA's negotiators to negotiate.

Good point, Lets hope so!

 

[Rhoid]

but there's a problem...CHQ, Mesa, Eagle, Transtates...and all those other pilot groups out there that would practically pay there employer to fly there airplanesQUOTE]


Gee, if i'm not mistaken wasn't ASA one of the original PFT airlines? Kinda hipocritical don't you think?

 

[jetstream]

Yeah, we've got some of those pay for training guys and they're all senior to me.

But I've got my pride (and less debt)!

 

[FL990]

Gee, if i'm not mistaken wasn't ASA one of the original PFT airlines? Kinda hipocritical don't you think?

I'm guessing you work for CHQ...could be wrong. Anyway, the reality is if we had brand scope, we wouldn't even have this discussion because CHQ wouldn't be part of the equation. My stance on all of this is different from many of the pissed of pilots at this company. Where as some of my angry co-workers would love to see the demise of ASA just out of spite, I choose a different approach. I say we use our barganing power (if we actually have any due to the fact that I highly doubt Bush is going to allow a strike) and fight for brand scope which gives us even more leverage. Fight for that, fight for the combination of ASA and Comair and maybe even Delta too. This gives us an enormous amount of leverage for future contracts. Then we can go after the big contract and they will have little choice but to give in. In other words, what I am saying is instead of trying to put ASA out of business, as an ASA pilot, go after getting CHQ and any other outside company out of our system and focus on keeping them out...not by undercutting them, but by merging the Delta system and then squeezing others out with brand scope in order to give us the leverage we need to get the contract we deserve. This is not a personal attack, its just good business on our part. Sorry

 

[49W]

Good ideas, but Delta management will most likely never allow for a merger anywhere. Their thought process is to keep costs as low as possible. They know that by merging ASA and Comair or by giving brand scope, their options become limited and we become more powerful. Naturally, we would be in a better position to negotiate higher wages and better working conditions (there's an idea). Now they can choose the lowest bidder and subcontract out the work. It's been going on for years in other areas of aviation. The one thing that they don't look at is quality of service. When you operate this way, morale goes down, therefore motivation to go above and beyond decreases.