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.
