Big Sky - East Coast

[profit]

I give you, a PO'd XJ pilot!

Come on dude, whoever said ALPA tried to get the TWU "decertified"? They certainly tried to persuade Big Sky pilots to vote out TWU in favor of ALPA, but Big Sky pilots rightfully had a bad taste in their mouth after approaching ALPA twice to no avail.

Get off your high-horse. Its Christmas and people just heard they are out of a job, just in time to have already spent some hard earned money on the holidays. Pissed or not, you should have compassion for any pilot forced out of a job for any reason, especially during the holidays. Do YOU know what each and every individual pilot there at Big Sky thinks or thought about ALPA or Mesaba? Some probably hated both, true, but the rest were just earning a living and supporting a family.

It is best YOU are aware of the PRESENT FACTS before YOU start SPEWING off THAT stuff.

It amazes me how people infer so many things...

Re-read what I wrote about 6 times and maybe you will get it.

You and others write that Big Sky voted NO to ALPA, and all sorts of other factual inaccuracies. I wanted to correct that.

I am certainly not angry. I just wanted to recount some history before more people tried to rewrite it.

I never said or implied that I thought it was cool that Big Sky pilots were out of jobs.

I sincerely hope they all apply at Mesaba and become overnight captains. Or find better jobs elsewhere, there are plenty of airlines that need pilots right now. In fact, I would be willing to bet that people on the Mesaba MEC are discussing the idea of trying to help the Big Sky pilots.

My "high horse" only has to do with the truth.

I also think it was a mistake for ALPA to fail to represent Big Sky (even though it was YEARS ago). And I think ALPA probably learned some lessons in the process.

 

[JPAustin]

It amazes me how people infer so many things...

Re-read what I wrote about 6 times and maybe you will get it.

You and others write that Big Sky voted NO to ALPA, and all sorts of other factual inaccuracies. I wanted to correct that.

I am certainly not angry. I just wanted to recount some history before more people tried to rewrite it.

I never said or implied that I thought it was cool that Big Sky pilots were out of jobs.

I sincerely hope they all apply at Mesaba and become overnight captains. Or find better jobs elsewhere, there are plenty of airlines that need pilots right now. In fact, I would be willing to bet that people on the Mesaba MEC are discussing the idea of trying to help the Big Sky pilots.

My "high horse" only has to do with the truth.

I also think it was a mistake for ALPA to fail to represent Big Sky (even though it was YEARS ago). And I think ALPA probably learned some lessons in the process.

Huuuummm. Okay, I will concede that the conjecture of "voting NO to ALPA" comes off as ALPA trying to break the UTU, which could not happen because that would be highly illegal as the UTU is AFLCIO just like ALPA. However, the spirit of "NO to ALPA" still maintains, as the Big Sky group voted in, as considered at the time, the less than stellar contract that MAIR wanted. In spite of ALPA's wooing, the contract was voted in and it did hurt the leverage of XJ's MEC during the contract negotiations.

So the facts of the matter are that one, ALPA rejected Big Sky's advances twice because Big Sky was not big enough, two, the UTU, which is twice as big as ALPA, happily picked up Big Sky, three, MAIR bought Big Sky to whip saw against XJ pilots knowing that there were likely bad feelings Big Sky pilots felt towards ALPA, and four, the Big Sky pilots voted yes to the MAIR contract and effectively stunted the negotiating leverage of XJ's MEC.

I think this clears up the facts of the situation, and I apoligize for misconstrueing your tone. And Happy Holidays.