ASA pilots preparing for possible strike

[DrewBlows]

Funny how my disagreeing with ALPA is whining and your disagreeing with ASA is not. Guess it depends on what side of the fence you're on, huh?

ALPA is there to represent pilots, ASA is not (at times they fight against pilots). You have made it clear what side of the fence you are on.

 

[ohplease!]

ALPA is there to represent pilots, ASA is not (at times they fight against pilots). You have made it clear what side of the fence you are on.

hmm,last time I looked, I was a pilot (damnit, maybe I should look again) and I don't believe they are representing me well. My opinion.

 

[sstearns2]

Sorry to interupt, but I thought I'd metion that I sent the following letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scott

I'd like to respond to Paul Beebe's article, which discussed pay rates at ASA and Skywest Airlines. When you mention airline hourly rates please include the fact that our pay rates are not based on a traditional 40-hour week. The article leaves the impression that a regional jet captain at $81 per hour is making $170,000 per year. The reality it that a full time airline pilot generally gets about 1000 hours of pay per year versus the 2000 that a traditional full time employee would get. An article interested in full disclosure would also mention that first year pay rarely exceeds $25,000 per year and even a very senior First Officer at the regional airlines is lucky to break $40,000 per year. A really interesting article might be one that looks into what it takes to even qualify to become a entry level pilot in the regional airlines.

Yeah they had a real good article in the SLC paper too. It actually compared the payrates. Here it is:

ASA pilots union opens strike center
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune
Atlantic southeast airlines Bombardier CRJ700. (Atalantic Southwest Airlines) Atlantic Southeast pilots, who have been flying under a labor contract that expired four years ago, have opened a strike center in hopes of pressuring the company to reach a new agreement that would improve wages and benefits.
The center, announced Friday as opened at an undisclosed location, would serve as a command post if the pilots strike. It marks the latest effort by the pilots union to get stalled negotiations restarted, or persuade the National Mediation Board to offer binding arbitration to the two sides if it concludes further negotiations will be fruitless.
No formal negotiations have been held since May. Meetings on Aug. 30 and 31 called by the board to restart talks collapsed when ASA offered only a token improvement on its contract offer, said Capt. Rich Bernskoetter, an ASA pilot and spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association.
"Our pilots are absolutely at their wits' end," Bernskoetter said Friday. "They've seen all of this far too long. They've heard the company's mantra for the last four years, and they are fed up."
ASA executives did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment Friday.
The airline is a subsidiary of SkyWest Inc., which bought the ASA from Delta Air Lines last year. ASA has 1,700 pilots, including 150 aviators stationed in Salt Lake. It operates as a Delta Connection regional carrier for Delta, with 40 daily departures from its Salt Lake City International Airport hub.
Beginning in November, when negotiators representing the pilots held a vote to express no confidence in management, ALPA has been increasing the pressure on ASA. In May, pilots conducted informational picketing outside the carrier's Atlanta headquarters. In July, the aviators voted to authorize their union leaders to call a strike if negotiations don't produce a new contract.
"You don't open a strike center unless you are preparing for the eventuality of a strike, and that's what we are doing [now]," Bernskoetter said. "I hope it never comes to that. A strike is not imminent, but it certainly is an event that we have to be prepared for."
ALPA's tactics on behalf of ASA pilots are suggestive of those used by ALPA-represented Delta pilots in their fight to blunt pay and benefits cuts that Delta demanded earlier this year. Delta authorized their representatives to call a strike and went so far as to set up a command center. The sides eventually reached an agreement.
The current ASA pilot contract, ratified in 1998, was in force until Sept. 15, 2002. Since then, pilots have been seeking moderate increases in pay, retirement benefits and insurance benefits, union spokesman John Perkinson said.
Perkinson said ASA wants to bring pay rates for flying CRJ-700 regional jets closer to what pilots flying smaller CRJ-200 jets earn. Other pilot compensation would remain essentially unchanged.
ASA captains with 10 years of experience who fly CRJ-700 jets earn $81 an hour, according to willflyforfood.cc, a Web site that tracks pilot pay. CRJ-200 captains with identical flying experience earn $71 an hour.
By contrast, non-union pilots at SkyWest Airlines, ASA's sister carrier, earn $74 an hour for flying either jet type, according to the Web site.
St. George-based SkyWest Inc. bought ASA from Delta one week before Delta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. SkyWest Airlines and ASA operate as separate subsidiaries.

 

[ohplease!]

Sorry to interupt, but I thought I'd metion that I sent the following letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scott

I'd like to respond to Paul Beebe's article, which discussed pay rates at ASA and Skywest Airlines. When you mention airline hourly rates please include the fact that our pay rates are not based on a traditional 40-hour week. The article leaves the impression that a regional jet captain at $81 per hour is making $170,000 per year. The reality it that a full time airline pilot generally gets about 1000 hours of pay per year versus the 2000 that a traditional full time employee would get. An article interested in full disclosure would also mention that first year pay rarely exceeds $25,000 per year and even a very senior First Officer at the regional airlines is lucky to break $40,000 per year. A really interesting article might be one that looks into what it takes to even qualify to become a entry level pilot in the regional airlines.

excellent point but, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for ANY journalist to print the entire truth about ANYTHING.

And articles like that very one are the biggest reason informational picketing is a complete waste of time. Anyone sho passes by the line simply thinks the pilots in that line are grossly overpaid and almost never have to come to work. Perception is oh so important.

The traveling public will not care until they begin to miss flights/vacations/family gatherings and funerals and the only way that will happen regularly is for ASA pilots to strike. That WILL NOT HAPPEN, for many reasons, mostly because the NMB is not going to release ASA. If in the event they do, JA will settle a contract, even a bad one from the companies standpoint, and transfer flying and equipment quite rapidly to SkyW.

Bad postiont to be in for us at ASA but, ALPA isn't going to help it or stop it. It will take ONE list for ASA/SkyW and our own in house union (bargainig unit).

 

[Bizjet]

Bad postiont to be in for us at ASA but, ALPA isn't going to help it or stop it. It will take ONE list for ASA/SkyW and our own in house union (bargainig unit).

OhPlease tell us you are Ms. JoeyMerchant. Or all of you losers having to read from the same script.

 

[Bizjet]

never said that. what I have said is our mec/cnc needs to be more reasonable.

They are reasonable. Why don't you talk to management about being more reasonable the next time you are dropping off their shoes after having licked them clean.

 

[Gr82Aviate]

Sorry to interupt, but I thought I'd metion that I sent the following letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scott

I'd like to respond to Paul Beebe's article, which discussed pay rates at ASA and Skywest Airlines. When you mention airline hourly rates please include the fact that our pay rates are not based on a traditional 40-hour week. The article leaves the impression that a regional jet captain at $81 per hour is making $170,000 per year. The reality it that a full time airline pilot generally gets about 1000 hours of pay per year versus the 2000 that a traditional full time employee would get. An article interested in full disclosure would also mention that first year pay rarely exceeds $25,000 per year and even a very senior First Officer at the regional airlines is lucky to break $40,000 per year. A really interesting article might be one that looks into what it takes to even qualify to become a entry level pilot in the regional airlines.

The 1000 hours is the legal maximum, and is reached by being away from home about 4 times that or more! Most don't make close to that much their first year, more like $17,000 or maybe 18 as a pro airline pilot.

 

[TOOL CRIB]

The 1000 hours is the legal maximum, and is reached by being away from home about 4 times that or more! Most don't make close to that much their first year, more like $17,000 or maybe 18 as a pro airline pilot.

You're confusing actual flight hours and the hours you get paid. With credits you can easily get paid more than 1000 hours/year

 

["GO AROUND"]

too far into ASA. I'm waiting for JA to invite me over in my current position with current longevity....guess I'll be waiting a while.

you're right, I did know ALPA was here when I hired on and you knew what ASA mgmt and regional airlines were like when you hired on. You and I BOTH did what was in our best interest by accepting the job. Doesn't mean you have to agree with ASA or I have to agree with ALPA.


Funny how my disagreeing with ALPA is whining and your disagreeing with ASA is not. Guess it depends on what side of the fence you're on, huh?

You're wrong in my case. When I hired on in 2000, managment and pilot/union relations were some of if not the best in the history of ASA. There was trust and things got done with your word and a handshake. There was no indication at the time that things would turn how they did.

 

[ohplease!]

You're wrong in my case. When I hired on in 2000, managment and pilot/union relations were some of if not the best in the history of ASA. There was trust and things got done with your word and a handshake. There was no indication at the time that things would turn how they did.

well, thanks for clearing that up for me. Now, sometime when I'm actually talking to you, I'll keep that in mind.