hey old man
>>Wow, during training did I miss the part where I get to decide on what CHQ bids for flying? I thought I was just a working stiff.
Hmmm, angry, bitter, yup they will be waiting in line to hire an attitude like that. Chill Bro' we are all in this together... They bid em' we fly em'.<<
Old Man,
The only thing I'm "angry" or "bitter" about is Chautauqua pilots accepting an agreement that I believe from the very onset of negotiations intended to be "Comair minus."
As far as my reply to the General's comments, any "anger and bitterness" implied in that reply was strictly aimed at the General's misdirected blackball "promise" of any non Military pilot, non intern, non "my daddy is a Delta 777 Captain", non PFT Comair line pilots. (Those other categories will obviously never be affected by the General's blackball promise.)
To say that all Comair pilots are bad (except the "exempt" categories of course) and that all Cuautauqua pilots are good in regards to who will get hired at Delta in the future is pretty stupid, IMHO. I realise you may disagree with me because you want the preference of his "promise", but if you look at it objectively, you can clearly see what the general is lobbying for is way off the mark.
As far as us all being in this together, I agree with you, to a point. We clearly ARE in this together. We do the exact same job in the exact same equipment doing the exact same thing. But standing together goes way beyond saying "how's it going" in the terminal and accepting eachother's jumpseaters.
When one pilot group negotiates an agreement that is a comfortable amount (for management) BELOW another "brother" pilot group's agreement ("cost structure" for you management types) for the sole purpose of enabling one's management to underbid a "brother" pilot group, because the pilot group in negotiations really really wants the 18 month upgrade, well that's pretty much being in it for one's self now isn't it?
The fact is that the Chautauqua pilots chose to underbid the Comair pilots. They refused to raise the bar. Am I angry with them personaly? No, because there hasn't been a single "regional" pilot group with the stones to fight for "Comair plus." Management has sold most of us on the "In the post 9-11 world ANY improvement is enough" and we've (as a group) bought it.
Sure we are in a depressed aviation economy right now, but look around you and see who'se profitable. Look who'se VERY profitable. The "majors" need the "regionals" big time. And they can't afford to lose ANY feed.
Remember when AirWisky and ACA were in a bidding war for UAL code? Both managements convinced each other to take concessions to bid against eachother. When the dust settled, they both cut their contracts a similar amount, and were back to square one as far as cost relative to one another. All the while UAL couldn't afford to lose both of them (or even one for that matter) so if they would have stood together neither would have had to have taken cuts. If they then stood fast and insisted on Comair 70 seat pay (or God forbid "Comair plus!") then SkyWest wouldn't have felt the "need" to selfishly cut the knees from under the rest of us. Again, just to get growth.
And so it goes with Comair and Chautauqua and everyone else for that matter. We were very recently approached with management's promise to "lock in" ALL future DCI growth (that includes whatever you might get) if only we took some concessions. We told them no way. According to the DOT we are around 50% more profitable than Jet Blue (in terms of total quarterly profits) which is the industry's biggest sucess story. Where's the NEED for concessions?
There isn't any "need" and management knows it. But they thought they'd try because they see a growing trend of pilots underbidding eachother for growth opportunities. They thought it might work here. It didn't. We will accept the consequences from not caving, but we will never condone the actions of pilot groups who underbid us for the sole purpose of getting DCI growth.
As for you not being a part of all this because you were recently hired, again I'm not "angry or bitter" towards you. I know not all pilots can (or should) work for the same company. There's nothing wrong with you flying for Chautauqua. There IS something very wrong with pilot groups willing to stab eachother in the back for growth by any means necessary.
I was very disheartened to see Mesaba cave like that. If you're unwilling or afraid to strike to get substantialy more than a middle of the road contract then don't vote to strike. Look at NWA's books. They never could have afforded to bleed 600 canceled flights a day for several months. You had them by the short hairs and you let them go.
Our (all "regional" pilot group's) only hope now rests with ASA and Continental Express. Delta has some cash to bleed, but not just to avoid "Comair plus" a few percent. And Coex (wholly owned or not) has Continental backed into a corner. They have almost no cash in the bank, yet are well on the road to excellent long term recovery. They can't afford to throw that all away just so Bethune will get a few high fives at his last ATA meeting before he retires.
If it drags on into next year, there's no way the new guy (whoever that may be) will start off his tenure by plunging CAL into a bankruptsy that could easily have been avoided by simply authorizing the funds for Comair plus 1% in pilot crew costs.
So Old Man, no one's mad at you (at least not me) and I do believe we are in this together. I don't believe we as collective pilot groups have been demonstrating that the last couple years though. A little solidarity goes a long way.
Someone, anyone, please raise the bar.
