George Jetson said:
Thanks, now if I can just hit 501 out of 1000 or 51 our of 100, do I win the game?
1. Jobs and job security should be the number one issue for your pilot group and every other pilot group. I agree with that. It is not what you want that is wrong, it is what you're willing to do to get it. The time to protect your job security was before the fact, not after. Jobs for you should not be obtained by taking them from someone else.
If SKYW (or anyone else) gets new business, the jobs associated with that new business should go first to Skywest pilots in order of their seniority, not to you. When Skywest does not have enough of their own pilots to fill the jobs and must hire new pilots, then and only then, is it ligitimate for you to ask that they give you preference for those jobs. If you can get your Company to make that a condition of the contract, that's OK too. In that case, you go to the bottom of their list like any other new Skywest pilot. Otherwise, you have no right whatever to ANY Captain's slots or to any job at Skywest. Want them to hire you in preference to an off-the-street new hire (because the jobs are a contract with your company) then that's ok and you become a Skywest pilot. Want to keep seniority at SKYW and CAL and XJT at the same time? BS.
Dual seniority at more than one employer is highly questionable from a legal point of view and may even violate the ALPA C&BL. It creates a multitude of industrial problems. Yes, they can be ignored. ALPA is good at ignoring lots of things when it wants to. But, that won't last forever. Sooner or later somebody will have to pay the piper.
2. Yes, the flying was yours, the key word being was. It's not yours any more. Actually it doesn't even exist. Growth at a different airline belongs to that airline, not to you.
When you wanted your company to go "all jet" you were not worring any about the turboprop flying and for whatever reason did not secure that flying. Now the tide has turned and your company is getting back into the turboprop business and you have pilots on the street. Hindsight suddenly becomes 20/20 and you now want back the flying that you gave up willingly. Guess what? You're normal.
Back in 91, my pilot group was negotiating for a new contract just as you are. Some of the leaders told the pilots that the most important contractual improvement they could get was securing their jobs. That they should protect themselves against the sale of the company and the farming out of their work. Guess what? They didn't agree and they went for the money and the jets instead. They got both, but it was a huge mistake. They made the wrong choice and we are now exposed to great risk.
They didn't see that the little gold fish might be gobbled up by a big shark. They believed that if that did happen, the big shark would love its meal and they could swim happily in its belly and become as one. They never imagined that the big shark might stop them from swimming all together if it felt like it. They believed they would be "embraced" and "loved" by their brothers in Atlanta and they would all be flying for the big shark making mucho bucks while everyone sang Kumbaya. Well, when the shark ate the goldfish they suddenly found out that their brothers only objective was to digest them and then excrete them. They were not "embraced", they were not "loved", there was no bonding and they were not "brothers". They were called and treated as interlopers, seniority grabbers, etc., etc., and the only thing their new "family" wanted to do was get rid of them, but of course keep their airplanes and their flying in the process. If their "brothers" couldn't do that because "the man" wouldn't let them, they settled for second best -- trying to stop our growth.
3. You wanted a flow-through and you got it. YOU made an agreement to go to the bottom of another list, and YOU made an agreement to let the other group go to the top of your list. When you were "flowing" to CAL you were happy. Now that CAL is flowing back to you, you are unhappy. You want it both ways. Well you gambled and you lost. Sh*t happens. Don't want to get it all over you, don't play in it.
Think CAL wanted that "agreement" because they liked you and thought of you as "brothers"? If that was the case there would not have been a 1:3 ratio, there would have been no "interview" (for a job you already had) and there would not be any "off-the-street pilots" ahead of you. It would have been flow up to the bottom, flow back to the bottom. You weren't "brothers" you were foster kids that were not wanted. The agreement was signed for one reason only, furlough protection for CAL. They got what they wanted and so did you at the time. Today, you are simply getting what you agreed to and so are they.
That is exactly why we would never agree to that type of flow-through. We knew what it would mean in the event of a downturn and we were not willing to pay that price and buy a pig in a poke. If we had not seen the danger and instead blindly grabbed for the candy, 3/4 of our list could be on the street today. It is always better to remain a small fish in your own pond than to be a fish with no pond at all. To each his own.
4. Want to get your turboprop flying back? Great, I have NO problem with that. Do it by forcing your Company to put those aircraft on the XJT certificate, just like they were before. Then you will have access to 100% of them and you can put your furloughed pilots back to work. You won't have to worry about Commutair or Gulfstream or Skywest or anybody else. That's the right way to do it.
5. Allowing your company to subcontract your flying to another airline and then demanding that your pilots be forced onto their seniority list with super seniority of any kind is just plain wrong. You gave up what you didn't want when times were good and now that times are bad you want to save yourself and correct your mistake by taking away the rights of others. That's wrong.
You are attempting to do to SKYW pretty much the same thing that the APA is doing to Eagle. You have alredy done it (according to you) to Commutair. You are attempting to do to SKYW the very same thing that ALPA has done to ALG, PDT, PSA, MDW, MES and CHQ, i.e., steal seniority and steal new jobs. The APA is wrong about that; ALPA is wrong about that; and you will be wrong if you emulate them.
6. As for ALPA not having anything to do with it well, if you really believe that I feel sorry for you. Your negotiating committee, CAL's negotiating committee, your combined MEC and any and everything you do in terms of negotiations or contracts, requires the approval of the ALPA and the signature of its President. You can't make any contractual agreement without the approval of the ALPA. They don't have their "hand in the cookie jar" my friend, they own the cookie jar and you are nothing more than pawns in the chess game of the big players. If that's what you want to be, it's OK with me. Just don't fool yourself into believing its something else.
ALPA would love to have you secure a "Props for Jobs" protocol. What that does is give them the opportunity to "use" you one more time. They used you to get the ICAP merger, they used you in the single-MEC to ensure CAL control, and they're using you now to support their "Jets for Jobs" concept. If they can get an "ALPA" regional to screw some other regional(s), like they got the mainline to screw regionals, that will allow them to say: "See, we aren't doing anything wrong, that's how it's supposed to work, when you don't have what you want you just take it from somebody that has it. The regionals are doing it just like the mainliners are doing it, so it must be A-OK. Forcing your way onto another pilot groups seniority list is the way to go. Once we establish that precedent, the mainline carriers will never have to worry about furloughs again, they can just move down to the regionals. When we run out of seniority slots to steal, guess who will be on the street? It won't be "us", it will be them.
I'm not paranoid my friend, I'm just old enough to see both the trees and the forest.
