Vinny
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2011
- Posts
- 51
Part 5 of 5
The meager increase in annual pay we proposed as partial compensation for the extra 26 days per year on the road only serves to reduce from 14.3% to 11.5% the effective pay cut the 8&6 Schedule brings. Nonetheless, management viewed any amount of compensation for pilots working 26 more days per year as a wholly undeserved "raise." Their position was insulting, to say the very least.
Your negotiators asked the Company’s team to tell us, specifically, item by item, if they were going to implement any of the cost savings measures we had identified. Their response to each item varied from "no" to "we will look into it." Of course, under their concept and opinion of what you are worth to the Company, should any of the Union’s suggestions be implemented and actually save the Company money, pilots are not going to receive any additional compensation.
It was obvious to your negotiators that management has concerns about how the pilots will react to the 8&6 Schedule. They apparently were attempting to obtain your Union’s assistance in calming the masses. Your negotiators made it clear we had no interest in helping them out of their dilemma unless they were willing to adopt adequate work rule protections and some measure of economic recognition for those extra 26 days on the road. Regrettably, they made absolutely no attempt, whatsoever, to even begin to negotiate over any of your Union’s proposals or concepts. Senior management obviously views CitationAir’s pilots as indentured servants, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, who haven’t yet been driven to the breaking point.
So, what’s the next thing in store for the CitationAir pilots? In some respects that’s up to you and just how willing you are to continue to allow management to take unfair advantage of your skills, professionalism and dedication. Maybe CitationAir will still be around in a year; maybe not. We know that many pilots who were strong supporters of forming a Union have given up because they are convinced the Company and their jobs have entered the "hospice" phase of their once glorious existence. Even if that is a correct assessment of what the future has in store, there is no better time to join forces than right now. Otherwise, nothing at all stands between the pilots and management, as they continue to decimate our ranks and brutalize our quality of life. You can roll up into a ball and passively wait for management to close the doors, or you can fight for what’s right and fair for whatever length of time the Company stays in business. But you can’t wage a successful fight if you are alone. That’s why the CitationAir pilots voted to form a Union in the first place.
If you want to have a few good laughs during these stressful times, dig out some of the anti-union propaganda published during the organizing campaign by the senior management of the day. Read very carefully the cult-like, feel-good rhetoric they spewed forth attempting to convince you they valued and appreciated your service. Remember their catchy slogan, "CitationAir: Where you belong." A lot of pilots fell for that story line. We wonder how many of those same pilots still believe in that dribble, given how Textron/Cessna/CitationAir is treating them now. Are you still feeling the love?
The time has come to make your Union stronger, not weaken it by failing to maintain or obtain member-in-good-standing (MIGS) status. Your Union, which is you and your fellow pilots—all of you—needs your support, your participation and your dues to remain a viable institution. It may be true that, without a CBA, the Union has limited ability to prevent management from unilaterally changing things, like they are doing with the 8&6 Schedule. However, your negotiators are, indeed, steadily nibbling away at securing that CBA. A CBA—and only a CBA—once obtained, will put an immediate halt to management’s unilateral actions. The stronger your Union, the faster we reach that goal. Had the CitationAir pilots organized a year or two earlier and not fallen for management’s hollow promises and fallacious arguments, we would probably be working under a CBA by now. Management would have needed our consent to make any changes to pilot wages, working conditions and benefits.
If CitationAir does cease to exist in a year or two, at least the pilots who joined and supported their Union to the very end will have gone out standing tall and straight with their boots on. They may have lost their jobs, but they will not have lost their dignity and self-respect. On the other hand, the shutdown of the Company may not be pre-ordained. If senior management ever figures out how to market their product and increase revenue so the Company survives, just think of the possibilities and security a CBA will provide for all of our families and us.
The meager increase in annual pay we proposed as partial compensation for the extra 26 days per year on the road only serves to reduce from 14.3% to 11.5% the effective pay cut the 8&6 Schedule brings. Nonetheless, management viewed any amount of compensation for pilots working 26 more days per year as a wholly undeserved "raise." Their position was insulting, to say the very least.
Your negotiators asked the Company’s team to tell us, specifically, item by item, if they were going to implement any of the cost savings measures we had identified. Their response to each item varied from "no" to "we will look into it." Of course, under their concept and opinion of what you are worth to the Company, should any of the Union’s suggestions be implemented and actually save the Company money, pilots are not going to receive any additional compensation.
It was obvious to your negotiators that management has concerns about how the pilots will react to the 8&6 Schedule. They apparently were attempting to obtain your Union’s assistance in calming the masses. Your negotiators made it clear we had no interest in helping them out of their dilemma unless they were willing to adopt adequate work rule protections and some measure of economic recognition for those extra 26 days on the road. Regrettably, they made absolutely no attempt, whatsoever, to even begin to negotiate over any of your Union’s proposals or concepts. Senior management obviously views CitationAir’s pilots as indentured servants, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, who haven’t yet been driven to the breaking point.
So, what’s the next thing in store for the CitationAir pilots? In some respects that’s up to you and just how willing you are to continue to allow management to take unfair advantage of your skills, professionalism and dedication. Maybe CitationAir will still be around in a year; maybe not. We know that many pilots who were strong supporters of forming a Union have given up because they are convinced the Company and their jobs have entered the "hospice" phase of their once glorious existence. Even if that is a correct assessment of what the future has in store, there is no better time to join forces than right now. Otherwise, nothing at all stands between the pilots and management, as they continue to decimate our ranks and brutalize our quality of life. You can roll up into a ball and passively wait for management to close the doors, or you can fight for what’s right and fair for whatever length of time the Company stays in business. But you can’t wage a successful fight if you are alone. That’s why the CitationAir pilots voted to form a Union in the first place.
If you want to have a few good laughs during these stressful times, dig out some of the anti-union propaganda published during the organizing campaign by the senior management of the day. Read very carefully the cult-like, feel-good rhetoric they spewed forth attempting to convince you they valued and appreciated your service. Remember their catchy slogan, "CitationAir: Where you belong." A lot of pilots fell for that story line. We wonder how many of those same pilots still believe in that dribble, given how Textron/Cessna/CitationAir is treating them now. Are you still feeling the love?
The time has come to make your Union stronger, not weaken it by failing to maintain or obtain member-in-good-standing (MIGS) status. Your Union, which is you and your fellow pilots—all of you—needs your support, your participation and your dues to remain a viable institution. It may be true that, without a CBA, the Union has limited ability to prevent management from unilaterally changing things, like they are doing with the 8&6 Schedule. However, your negotiators are, indeed, steadily nibbling away at securing that CBA. A CBA—and only a CBA—once obtained, will put an immediate halt to management’s unilateral actions. The stronger your Union, the faster we reach that goal. Had the CitationAir pilots organized a year or two earlier and not fallen for management’s hollow promises and fallacious arguments, we would probably be working under a CBA by now. Management would have needed our consent to make any changes to pilot wages, working conditions and benefits.
If CitationAir does cease to exist in a year or two, at least the pilots who joined and supported their Union to the very end will have gone out standing tall and straight with their boots on. They may have lost their jobs, but they will not have lost their dignity and self-respect. On the other hand, the shutdown of the Company may not be pre-ordained. If senior management ever figures out how to market their product and increase revenue so the Company survives, just think of the possibilities and security a CBA will provide for all of our families and us.
