Marko Ramius
Vilnius Nastavnic
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 378
Skydiverdriver,
I'm not exactly sure about what you are upset about, but I assure you I have nothing against the rank and file Comair pilots(or any other regional for that matter). If they are interviewing furloughees, then my apoligies but every thing I've heard from UAL furloughees who have tried has been no dice so far. I have heard nothing about improprieties during interviews at Comair or anywhere for that matter, I hope my message didn't give you the impression that I thought that was going on. AFAIK, no interviews are being given to furloughees from the majors.
As many of us have and will learn, MEC politics don't always jibe with the feelings of the rank and file-the current nner happenings of my own airline are a sobering testament to that. This is why I directed my comments to your MEC. I made my comments because the perception from several of us major airline furloughees is that we aren't even getting the chance to interview with the regionals, and the ALPA union leadership at those carriers doesn't seem to care about it. I have since seen that there are some inklings of hope sprouting up, and all of this may be moot in the end. It seems that UsAirways wholy owneds may be hiring some furloughees, and maybe this could be the start of something good.
My comments about Midway weren't intended to compare situations, it was to highlight ALPA members helping out other ALPA members. I know your MEC doesn't directly control hiring. . That doesn't stop them from sending a letter to management asking them to interview ALPA furloughees, or trying to meet with them to ask the same thing. Since all airline management seems to love to leak bad press about pilots, maybe they could leak some info on this to put pressure on them. At the very least, a letter could be sent from your MEC to the MEC's at the other ALPA airlines appraising them of managments position on the matter and any efforts to try and reverse it. I fully admit it might not be succesfull, but sometimes it really is the thought that counts. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, your MEC may have reasons, unbeknownst to us to not support the hiring of ALPA furloughees to protect your career interests as that is their charge first and foremost. It appears that this might come into play between UsAirways ALPA and the wholly-owneds ALPA and maybe it will between Comair/ASA and DL mainline. Basically, I just want to know the MEC's reason for non-support, and not managements. I don't know the reason(s) at this time so I can't accuse them of anything specific, so I'm not sure what I should be apologizing for.
As far as recalls go, while I'm glad that some regionals and nationals seem to be recalling, that's not going to be the case for me or any of the 591 furloughees at UAL and probably UsAirways as well. We have permanently retired 85 aircraft and have several more parked and out of service. The aircraft to replace them don't even start coming in until 2004. The current fleet size supports around 8000 pilots, which means we have about 1200 more pilots or so to be furloughed next year. The only reason it hasn't happened yet, is because our previous CEO didn't understand the training and crewing ramifications of parking 85 planes of 2 fleet types at once. Even with retirements, we're looking at 3-5 years minimum, as we simply aren't poised for regrowth even if they wanted to. If I get recalled before then, beer(a good one too) and apologies are on me!
I'm not exactly sure about what you are upset about, but I assure you I have nothing against the rank and file Comair pilots(or any other regional for that matter). If they are interviewing furloughees, then my apoligies but every thing I've heard from UAL furloughees who have tried has been no dice so far. I have heard nothing about improprieties during interviews at Comair or anywhere for that matter, I hope my message didn't give you the impression that I thought that was going on. AFAIK, no interviews are being given to furloughees from the majors.
As many of us have and will learn, MEC politics don't always jibe with the feelings of the rank and file-the current nner happenings of my own airline are a sobering testament to that. This is why I directed my comments to your MEC. I made my comments because the perception from several of us major airline furloughees is that we aren't even getting the chance to interview with the regionals, and the ALPA union leadership at those carriers doesn't seem to care about it. I have since seen that there are some inklings of hope sprouting up, and all of this may be moot in the end. It seems that UsAirways wholy owneds may be hiring some furloughees, and maybe this could be the start of something good.
My comments about Midway weren't intended to compare situations, it was to highlight ALPA members helping out other ALPA members. I know your MEC doesn't directly control hiring. . That doesn't stop them from sending a letter to management asking them to interview ALPA furloughees, or trying to meet with them to ask the same thing. Since all airline management seems to love to leak bad press about pilots, maybe they could leak some info on this to put pressure on them. At the very least, a letter could be sent from your MEC to the MEC's at the other ALPA airlines appraising them of managments position on the matter and any efforts to try and reverse it. I fully admit it might not be succesfull, but sometimes it really is the thought that counts. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, your MEC may have reasons, unbeknownst to us to not support the hiring of ALPA furloughees to protect your career interests as that is their charge first and foremost. It appears that this might come into play between UsAirways ALPA and the wholly-owneds ALPA and maybe it will between Comair/ASA and DL mainline. Basically, I just want to know the MEC's reason for non-support, and not managements. I don't know the reason(s) at this time so I can't accuse them of anything specific, so I'm not sure what I should be apologizing for.
As far as recalls go, while I'm glad that some regionals and nationals seem to be recalling, that's not going to be the case for me or any of the 591 furloughees at UAL and probably UsAirways as well. We have permanently retired 85 aircraft and have several more parked and out of service. The aircraft to replace them don't even start coming in until 2004. The current fleet size supports around 8000 pilots, which means we have about 1200 more pilots or so to be furloughed next year. The only reason it hasn't happened yet, is because our previous CEO didn't understand the training and crewing ramifications of parking 85 planes of 2 fleet types at once. Even with retirements, we're looking at 3-5 years minimum, as we simply aren't poised for regrowth even if they wanted to. If I get recalled before then, beer(a good one too) and apologies are on me!
