Farquaad fiddled while OneSky burned

[993_Pilot]

I am not painting you as anything, I simply asked what it is that you hate about Kenn Ricci. Since you claim that you do, this shouldn't be a problem for you to answer. However, if you are a troll who is on this message board only to further KR's anti-union agenda, then you will again ignore that question and keep spewing.

So, what is it you hate about Kenn Ricci?

 

[warlord19]

Mach 94, your posts are spot on and correct. That is why you are attacked by Duhhh and other union tools who have no response other than calling you names, etc.

There is NO support left at Flex after this latest fiasco the IBT has pulled off, and a decert vote WILL happen before any contract is hammered out.

Flex pilots have had the opportunity to hear about and fly with FO pilots for a while now, and while there are some super pilots there, the majority are ingrained with the IBT credo of fatigue “issues"(3 to 4 times the Flex rate), idiotic write-ups, and bragging about how they f*cked the company doing this or that. They don’t seem to have any problems with having their “brothers” pick up their load. It’s been an education for many.

I would love to see us vote in a PROFESSIONAL union after the decert, but that’s another matter. Getting rid of this POS that just screwed a whole lot of folks should be our number one priority.

WL

 

[Mach94]

I am not painting you as anything, I simply asked what it is that you hate about Kenn Ricci. Since you claim that you do, this shouldn't be a problem for you to answer. However, if you are a troll who is on this message board only to further KR's anti-union agenda, then you will again ignore that question and keep spewing.

So, what is it you hate about Kenn Ricci?

Ah. You want to change the subject. No thanks. My being upset right now is with what the Union has done to our pilots by taking a year's pay from them and soon to be me. The UNION. TRYING TO TAKE MONEY AWAY. From THE PILOTS. For nothing other than a "bargaining chip." And what did the Union gain by this injunction? Nothing except HURTING PILOTS NOW WITHOUT A JOB.

It is hypocritical because the Union has done nothing but chastise management for furloughing the pilots for the same reason and using pilots' jobs - their lives, their family lives, as pieces in a game. Then the Union does the same thing. That is what i'm upset about. Not Ricci being Ricci. He will always do what he's done. But now the Union has stooped to his level and used those same pilots' lives and their family's lives in a game and trying to take the VSP from pilots lost or about to lose their jobs is nothing but vengeance against Ricci but it isn't Ricci getting hurt by that. It is only the Union's own. He obviously saves that money if the Union is successful. Furious about that. Yes.

No one is looking out for the furloughed pilots in this battle. They are cannon fodder. And those who were already sacrificed are just the beginning. More casualties are about to be had. And I"m about to be one of them. And in the all or nothing battle the Union has now engaged in, it is clear that both the Teamsters and Ken Ricci are not afraid to burn the place to the ground to prove their point. My resume's are out and I can only hope I can get another job, at probably a pay cut, before I get furloughed, since the Union is adamant that I shouldn't get any severance because it wasn't negotiated by them. Sorry. Been a MiGs forever, but I do not support a Union railroading pilots' severance to force bargaining. The only people that hurts is pilots, not the Company, and that does not make any sense. It is greed and a lack of compassion. This could have been handled differently without directly affecting the pilots who lost their jobs or are about to in the next wave we all know is coming soon. Thanks a lot.

 

[V1 Rotate]

I don't get how you people don't understand what happened here?!? Ricci admits he's going to break federal law. He refuses to to negotiate, which he's required to do, with the Union for an LOA to allow for the VSP. The Company demanded an answer within hours of surprising the Union with this VSP request when they were suppose to be negotiating fences. The Union responds with better language and longer terms, but the Company said no. The Union tried repeatedly via e-mail to talk with the Company but those e-mails went unanswered. Everyone knows that if Ricci gets away with this, then the Union's negotiating power to represent it's pilots going forward has been subverted. So spare us all the nonsense. You'd have to Helen Keller not to know what's going on here. I'm also curious which union, besides the Teamsters, you think will suffice? ALPA? They won't touch us. I, and others, tried. Or maybe that silly uniform union, or whatever it was, that was suggested by someone on Yammer long ago. Obviously, I'm not a fan of our Leadership nor am I of unions for the most part. But what I am passionate about is my seniority, what's left of it, and my rights as a dues paying union member not to be subverted by our Leadership.

 

[imacdog]

Looks like the payments to Ford and Harrison have cleared.

 

[GlorifiedCabbie]

Well troll you seem to be overlooking several material facts. The $70,000 per furloughed pilots pales to the amount the remaining pilots will sacrifice if Ricci's end run around the CBA is allowed to stand.
The next inconvenient fact was the Union put in writing what management said they would agree to. When it came time to sign the LOA, the COMPANY LAWYER stepped in, and said NO! This falls squarely in the company's lap. This POLITICAL furlough can be blamed on no one other than KR himself.

 

[Mach94]

F off. You're the troll. Furlough yes. You are absolutely right, that's all on Ricci.

Taking the money out of the pilots' pockets - that was the Union doing that, even after the union begged Ricci in two separate letters to "please just let the furloughed pilots have the same VSP they gave Flexjet." The company did exactly that, and the UNION is attempting to take it away from them.

Unforgivable mistake. And you watch. It will cost the 1108 everything because they did it. Bye bye 1108. It's just a matter of waiting for the NMB clock to run out. And the 1108 deserves it for doing what they did. They did not have the strength to pull that off and it is game over already.

 

[doh]

Let's NOT change the subject. This is not about furlough pay. This is about you saying this is such a sh**y, non career job that pilots should give up any recall rights. You are fundamentally misunderstanding what is going on here. So either you are a troll, or you need a serious education. If management once gets to bypass negotiation to set terms of compensation, WE WILL FOREVER LOSE THE RIGHT TO NEGOTIATE FOR COMPENSATION!! So it doesn't matter if this is the deal of the century for a handful of pilots!!!! IT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED!!!! And if a pilot once accepts this, s/he is forever barred from returning. That means the 50 pilots hand job says are being hired on the Flex side will not be recalled furloughs. You may not be a troll like warturd, but you aren't making any sense from a legal, contractual point.

 

[Mach94]

Time will tell, won't it? I completely understand the union's stance on why they did what they did. It is you who does not understand how wrong they were to do what they did, how selfish and needless their reasonings why, and how they did it. That the reasonings should not have been at a needless cost to those either on the street or about to be at a tune of a year's wages, and what it has now cost them for doing it. The union sunk itself in doom by (attempting) slaughtering the furlough pilots' VSP. And now, whether the union is successful or not at that slaughter, the damage is done. The solidarity is gone and won't come back.

You are right about the dead-end job though. What a mistake it was to most of our careers by coming to this place. And for giving it a chance and sticking it out with a union with no teeth. The sad part about that is that most of us have had almost an entire career of working at the bottom of the industry fractional company. The RTA guys half a career. And are still here. And 10 years of a substandard pilot group with a weak union that has never had any teeth and is only worse since aquiring Flexjet. Sad indeed.

Flight Options is done. Ricci and/or the union will burn it to the ground in this battle, and the holder of the wild card will win, that being SLI. No matter who wins Flight Options is out of business in 2 years or less. Much sooner if Ricci has his way. If the company wins out and gets a decert vote going before SLI is settled in court then Ricci wins and Options goes away and Ricci gets Flexjet without adding senior Flight Options union supporting pilots to his Flexjet roster. What an interesting mess that would be. If Options closes its doors before SLI is settled, then all the flight options pilots are on the street, only flexjet pilots are flying, and the union is left defending a bunch of pilots who can't pay dues because all of them are now on the street. But way to show Ricci to force him to negotiate! And oh yeah. no one gets a VSP. Serves them right for demanding the unobtainable (recall rights to a VSP!). However. If the union wins in court over SLI then Flight Options is still doomed but the Flexjet list will be inflated with Options pilots who had no job, however the decert happens anyway as the union threw away the support they had with this fiasco. The main point being, regardless of SLI, 2 things are now going to happen: Flight options goes out of business, and a decert vote will not only happen, but it will be a land slide victory for Ricci. He will have Flexjet without the 1108, and Flight Options will be nothing but a brown stain on Ricci's underwear.

The union (barely) had a chance to beat Ricci at his game and at least get integrated and save some flight options pilot jobs by getting them added to Flex's list until they showed their true colors and showed all the pilots at Options that they only care about the top of their list, not any pilots that will be let go (by demanding unreasonable demands like the right to return from a VSP... most idiotic thing anyone's ever heard of and has zero precedence in 100 years of unionized pilots) and showed Flexjet that they don't care about what happens to a pilot once he's let go, and cost each and every one of them $50,000 to $70,000 needlessly over a cause that no one but Teamsters international supports. The union no longer has the support to stop a decert vote from winning. And every miserable day that brings more bad news to the pilots will only further ensure Ricci's victory. He out-played us.

 

[993_Pilot]

You obviously have no grasp of what is really at stake or what the union is trying to accomplish here. The union is not trying to prevent the furloughed pilots from getting a package at all, on the contrary, they are trying to get it all spelled out in a written, legally binding LOA. Perhaps you don't like the terms that the union first proposed, but I doubt anyone ever expected that the company would readily agree to their first counter proposal, however they did expect them to actually negotiate like they are required to do by the RLA. What would you have had them do?... bow to KR's will without questioning it or getting an LOA? Do you actually have any faith that KR and his team of merry-men would actually live up to that unsanctioned VSP agreement for an entire year? He!!, they won't even live up to their legal obligations now. What good is having a union if they don't enforce the contract and attempt to negotiate the best for the pilots that they represent. If the union simply caved to Kenn Ricci's demands, they would be seriously marginalized and it would be game over already. It is only by standing up for what they believe is right and for what is best for the entire pilot group that they have a chance. I am sorry that this will apparently hit you personally, and I would probably be pretty bitter if I was in your shoes too, but maybe you could take some of that frustration out on the management team that used you and others like pawns in their chess game and caused this whole mess. Look at the bright side, everyone else is hiring. Best of luck to you.