120% Torque
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2002
- Posts
- 277
For those of you who have been around for a while you will recongnize the rhetoric. Its so funny in a sad way it makes one want to cry. Livingston the company spinmeister is at it again. Now with a Union vote upon us he re-appears. He wont bring up the fact Zoltar died for no apparent reason. He wont bring up the fact that the last pay agreement went years past its due date only to end with a one percent raise for most RJ guys and zero percent raise for the EMB drivers. yet here he is today suggesting its that darn union drive getting in the way of the company offering more money or that more money is on the way in November now if alpa is kept away.
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"I believe our compensation should and will be reviewed anually in accordance with published company policy SP100. I believe that will start on November 7th. We can agree to disagree as to what will happen on November 7th.
Zoltar is still out there. Sked+ helped some with the schedule enhancement possibilities."
- D. Livingston
----------------------------------------
Once again the veterans who have watched this dog and pony show multiple times before knew it would happen again. I hope the new guys can learn from the mistakes of the past. If this Alpa drive fails nothing will be given....all promises of better communication and increased this and that will all die and blow away into the abyss as they have many times before. Please read what a very knowledgeable guy wrote October of last year. It is dead on! You tell me though if you see any similarities to the past? Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!
Fellow Pilots.
There is a lot of buzz regarding a new pay proposal. It appears that Capt Brad Holt is now receptive to reopening pay talks with SAPA. Our pilots have endured 2 years of being placated with 1.2% and strung along with broken promises and false hope. During the 1999 ALPA drive our pilots were flooded with letters from Brad Holt, Ron Reber and Jerry Atkin promising to improve communications, improve schedules, QOL, retirement benefits and to keep our pay at or near the top of the industry. A copy of this letter is available on the [URL="http://www.skywestalpa.org/"]http://www.skywestalpa.org[/URL] web site. We were all urged to discard our interest cards and to refrain from voting for representation. We were urged to trust our management, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to reject third party representation because they (SGU) have always done right by us and always will. We started receiving weekly Friday Wraps from Ron Reber, communications improved and numerous promises were made. Free watches, baseball caps and bowling shirts were passed out.
We listened and the 1999 drive failed by just a few votes. SGU breathed a mammoth sigh of relief but then it was back to business as usual. The Friday Wraps were discontinued, and SGU began the slow but deliberate process of chipping away elements of our pay and work rules. The result was our overall compensation falling somewhere in the bottom half of the pack, not industry leading as was promised during the drive. In spite of this, our pilots continued to show unprecedented professionalism by continuing to deliver industry leading service and performance thus propelling SkyWest Airlines to one of the most profitable and number 1 on time carriers in the nation. We became the carrier of choice not only for our major code-sharing partners and shareholders but also for aspiring pilots.
During the 2004 UPA drive we again witnessed deceptive tactics employed to discourage pilot interest in procuring Union representation. I recalled being blamed for the hold up in pay talks back in 04. Dave Cain the SAPA communications Chairman at the time implied that the company was willing to discuss pay raises etc but couldn’t because of UPA activities. Promises were made to improve reserve rules, improve schedules, (Zoltar has been talked about for years now). There was a proposal for durable language to protect our seniority in the event of a buy out or merger. There was talk of having a pilot only policy manual, one that could not be superseded by the Company’s policy manual. There was also talk of augmenting the disciplinary and appeals procedure to include outside arbitration. Again our pilots chose to reject union representation in favor of trusting SGU to deliver on these promises. The UPA drive failed and our pilots waited with great anticipation for SGU to deliver. What we got instead was a 1.2% offer, forced bid protocol and PBS.
What ensued after the UPA drive failed was an exact repeat of what occurred after the failed 1999 ALPA drive. It was back to business as usual for SGU. Management promptly rejected the durable language proposal so the matter regarding our seniority during a merger / buyout is still unknown. It doesn’t end there. There is the 401K FUBAR, forced bid protocol, PBS where the P is silent, training on days off (pre PBS), 9 month ASE bid lock, forced CRJ700 training despite the fact that SAPA said it would stand behind anyone who refused to train on the airplane, lowest paid CRJ900 pilots, the list goes on.
Management’s response to Mr Livingston’s letter after almost 2 years of hand wringing was 1.2% and nothing else, indefinitely.
After 9/11 our managers advertised they were all taking 10 to 20% pay cuts only to true themselves up back to original levels. This was done after imposing bucket system, terminating new hire compensation and a plethora of other cost cutting measured that impacted flight crew QOL and earning potential. The claim was this was necessary to avoid pay cuts. Meanwhile the top three enjoyed a 32 to 54% increase in compensation from 1998 to 2003. For example, Mr Atkins compensation in 1998 was $595,004.00; in 2005 his compensation was a whopping $1,802,137.00. You do the math. (Disclaimer, information compiled from SEC proxy statements and CEO pay watch.) How does your pay pale in comparison. While Mr Atkin deserves every penny he’s earned and I do not wish to use CEO compensation to justify pay increase for our pilots, the information is public and I posted the numbers as a FYI basis only. Our pilots continue to provide stellar performance yet fair compensation for said performance continues to elude us.
We find ourselves today with growing momentum with our current ALPA drive and suddenly Capt Holt is interested in reopening pay talks. SAPA dutifully crafted yet another ambitious opening salvo. Is the timing of this a coincidence? I leave it to you to decide. I have attempted to illustrate to you pattern habits that have yielded a false sense of hope while simultaneously diminishing interests in Union representation, the old threat of a Union is better than… play book.
What you all can expect in the next few weeks is no mystery because it has happened in the past. I have documentation and letters dating back to 1984 where similar tactics were used to discourage our pilots’ perceived need for union representation. Now that the seed is planted that Capt Holt is suddenly interested in re opening pay talks so soon after telling SAPA to go pound sand a few weeks ago, the OC will no doubt be implicated and blamed for the talks stalling. They have no intention of actually giving us anything unless we bargain for it with some real leverage, leverage we do not possess with our current representative structure. Once we start the card campaign SGU will use that as an excuse to halt talks and the OC’s activities will be blamed for our pilots not getting the raise they deserve. What they are hoping is for you to reject Union representation yet again by focusing on the proverbial carrot on a stick, only it’s a stick of dynamite disguised as a carrot. All we can do is to cry foul when history repeats itself and its back to business as usual for SGU. DO not fall into this trap.We are not dumb.
----------------------------------------
"I believe our compensation should and will be reviewed anually in accordance with published company policy SP100. I believe that will start on November 7th. We can agree to disagree as to what will happen on November 7th.
Zoltar is still out there. Sked+ helped some with the schedule enhancement possibilities."
- D. Livingston
----------------------------------------
Once again the veterans who have watched this dog and pony show multiple times before knew it would happen again. I hope the new guys can learn from the mistakes of the past. If this Alpa drive fails nothing will be given....all promises of better communication and increased this and that will all die and blow away into the abyss as they have many times before. Please read what a very knowledgeable guy wrote October of last year. It is dead on! You tell me though if you see any similarities to the past? Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!
Fellow Pilots.
There is a lot of buzz regarding a new pay proposal. It appears that Capt Brad Holt is now receptive to reopening pay talks with SAPA. Our pilots have endured 2 years of being placated with 1.2% and strung along with broken promises and false hope. During the 1999 ALPA drive our pilots were flooded with letters from Brad Holt, Ron Reber and Jerry Atkin promising to improve communications, improve schedules, QOL, retirement benefits and to keep our pay at or near the top of the industry. A copy of this letter is available on the [URL="http://www.skywestalpa.org/"]http://www.skywestalpa.org[/URL] web site. We were all urged to discard our interest cards and to refrain from voting for representation. We were urged to trust our management, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to reject third party representation because they (SGU) have always done right by us and always will. We started receiving weekly Friday Wraps from Ron Reber, communications improved and numerous promises were made. Free watches, baseball caps and bowling shirts were passed out.
We listened and the 1999 drive failed by just a few votes. SGU breathed a mammoth sigh of relief but then it was back to business as usual. The Friday Wraps were discontinued, and SGU began the slow but deliberate process of chipping away elements of our pay and work rules. The result was our overall compensation falling somewhere in the bottom half of the pack, not industry leading as was promised during the drive. In spite of this, our pilots continued to show unprecedented professionalism by continuing to deliver industry leading service and performance thus propelling SkyWest Airlines to one of the most profitable and number 1 on time carriers in the nation. We became the carrier of choice not only for our major code-sharing partners and shareholders but also for aspiring pilots.
During the 2004 UPA drive we again witnessed deceptive tactics employed to discourage pilot interest in procuring Union representation. I recalled being blamed for the hold up in pay talks back in 04. Dave Cain the SAPA communications Chairman at the time implied that the company was willing to discuss pay raises etc but couldn’t because of UPA activities. Promises were made to improve reserve rules, improve schedules, (Zoltar has been talked about for years now). There was a proposal for durable language to protect our seniority in the event of a buy out or merger. There was talk of having a pilot only policy manual, one that could not be superseded by the Company’s policy manual. There was also talk of augmenting the disciplinary and appeals procedure to include outside arbitration. Again our pilots chose to reject union representation in favor of trusting SGU to deliver on these promises. The UPA drive failed and our pilots waited with great anticipation for SGU to deliver. What we got instead was a 1.2% offer, forced bid protocol and PBS.
What ensued after the UPA drive failed was an exact repeat of what occurred after the failed 1999 ALPA drive. It was back to business as usual for SGU. Management promptly rejected the durable language proposal so the matter regarding our seniority during a merger / buyout is still unknown. It doesn’t end there. There is the 401K FUBAR, forced bid protocol, PBS where the P is silent, training on days off (pre PBS), 9 month ASE bid lock, forced CRJ700 training despite the fact that SAPA said it would stand behind anyone who refused to train on the airplane, lowest paid CRJ900 pilots, the list goes on.
Management’s response to Mr Livingston’s letter after almost 2 years of hand wringing was 1.2% and nothing else, indefinitely.
After 9/11 our managers advertised they were all taking 10 to 20% pay cuts only to true themselves up back to original levels. This was done after imposing bucket system, terminating new hire compensation and a plethora of other cost cutting measured that impacted flight crew QOL and earning potential. The claim was this was necessary to avoid pay cuts. Meanwhile the top three enjoyed a 32 to 54% increase in compensation from 1998 to 2003. For example, Mr Atkins compensation in 1998 was $595,004.00; in 2005 his compensation was a whopping $1,802,137.00. You do the math. (Disclaimer, information compiled from SEC proxy statements and CEO pay watch.) How does your pay pale in comparison. While Mr Atkin deserves every penny he’s earned and I do not wish to use CEO compensation to justify pay increase for our pilots, the information is public and I posted the numbers as a FYI basis only. Our pilots continue to provide stellar performance yet fair compensation for said performance continues to elude us.
We find ourselves today with growing momentum with our current ALPA drive and suddenly Capt Holt is interested in reopening pay talks. SAPA dutifully crafted yet another ambitious opening salvo. Is the timing of this a coincidence? I leave it to you to decide. I have attempted to illustrate to you pattern habits that have yielded a false sense of hope while simultaneously diminishing interests in Union representation, the old threat of a Union is better than… play book.
What you all can expect in the next few weeks is no mystery because it has happened in the past. I have documentation and letters dating back to 1984 where similar tactics were used to discourage our pilots’ perceived need for union representation. Now that the seed is planted that Capt Holt is suddenly interested in re opening pay talks so soon after telling SAPA to go pound sand a few weeks ago, the OC will no doubt be implicated and blamed for the talks stalling. They have no intention of actually giving us anything unless we bargain for it with some real leverage, leverage we do not possess with our current representative structure. Once we start the card campaign SGU will use that as an excuse to halt talks and the OC’s activities will be blamed for our pilots not getting the raise they deserve. What they are hoping is for you to reject Union representation yet again by focusing on the proverbial carrot on a stick, only it’s a stick of dynamite disguised as a carrot. All we can do is to cry foul when history repeats itself and its back to business as usual for SGU. DO not fall into this trap.We are not dumb.
Last edited:
uke: = SAPA
