Gary Kelly's ATN Comments at Message To The Field

[waveflyer]

You do understand that nobody believes that ..... ? Least of all yourself.

One thing I've noticed is how many on the air tran side blatantly covet the captain seat....??
That fourth stripe doesn't pay your mortgage and it's usually the captain who ends up with the "fat one"

The whole "seat" argument is seriously regional thinking and stinks of greed.

Or does it stem from a long history of life being fairly crappy in the right seat at AT? Where you really do need the left seat to have a good life?

If so, please realize how good life is here asan FO-
Captain will be great when it happens, but don't get trapped by thinking that the 30-38% payraise will change your life so much that you absolutely must have it.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Interesting turn of events. I would bet Gary Kelly was up late double checking plan B. "Muse Air" solution. I guess we need a bunch more new hire flight attendants in the near future.

You’ve asked and wondered about it—and now it’s a reality: the Flight Attendant position will be posted soon for external applicants!Please let your family and friends know that we will be posting the Flight Attendant position on southwest.com on Monday, February 14. The posting will go up at 12:00 noon (Central Time) and will only be posted for a very short time. If you know of anyone that is interested in being a Flight Attendant for Southwest, please inform them there will be a very limited timeperiod during which to apply.

attendants to picket in Atlanta
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Date: Friday, February 11, 2011, 4:48pm EST
.Related:
Travel .Enlarge Image
. ..AirTran Airways flight attendants have a message to get out on Valentine’s Day, but it isn’t an expression of love.

Represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), the flight attendants will picket in six cities over six weeks due to “management's continued stalling of contract negotiations,” the union claimed.

Their protest starts on Feb. 14 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It ends April 1 in Baltimore. If a tentative agreement is not reached by then, picketing will continue in six additional cities, the union said.

"While we do not want to have to take our struggle to the street, our Flight Attendants deserve fair work rule improvements now," said Stephen Grimaldi, AirTran flight attendant and AFA chairperson of Flight Attendant Mobilization, in a statement. "Management has been dragging their feet for too long - enough is enough."

AirTran (NYSE: AAI), the second-largest carrier out of Atlanta’s airport, is in a pending merger with Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV).

AirTran Airways flight attendants have a message to get out on Valentine’s Day, but it isn’t an expression of love.

Represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), the flight attendants will picket in six cities over six weeks due to “management's continued stalling of contract negotiations,” the union claimed.

Their protest starts on Feb. 14 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It ends April 1 in Baltimore. If a tentative agreement is not reached by then, picketing will continue in six additional cities, the union said.

"While we do not want to have to take our struggle to the street, our Flight Attendants deserve fair work rule improvements now," said Stephen Grimaldi, AirTran flight attendant and AFA chairperson of Flight Attendant Mobilization, in a statement. "Management has been dragging their feet for too long - enough is enough."

 

[stalker]

Just read a message from swapa that GK told the ATN MEC to pound sand on there requested meeting with him! So much for dragging the process agreement out to try and take part in our transition agreement between swa and swapa!

 

[scoreboardII]

even I wouldn't use the term "pound sand", more like "I don't care, I'll talk when we close".

 

[Bob Dylan]

Wow! I have never seen a more myopic group of pilots before reading some of the AirTran pilot comments on here.

My new prediction is that the AirTran pilots have gone from a negotiating position of a staple to the SWA list to now, a preferential interview at SWA for all Guadaluope Holdings pilots that have a 737 type rating. That's probably the best they will get now. Amazing!

Just watch and see.

 

[dh82dvr]

If swa fo's get to upgrade faster than they otherwise would have on account of this merger/aquisition then does that equal a windfall for those guys. Also if the qol, great pay and so on is the then what is the rush to the left seat?

Also, Bob you can pogue mahone dude, translated .... pucker up mate and staple your lips to my ar$e

 

[dicko]

I have absolutely no ego to sit in the right seat and throw gear if I got all of the above. Are you kidding me?

Tell me then where I got it wrong.

I absolutely agree with you regarding ego.

I'm talking about the seniority required to hold the seat. The seniority that protects you in bad times and the next merger.

I understand what you're saying but I disagree. If that's what you'd do in our position that's fine. Your Union would probably try to protect you from yourself if you ever have that choice to make. Like a good lawyer would.

We're not going to work it out here.

Cheers

 

[Ty Webb]

On face value, yes. Absolutely.
But we are not comparing two 'like' companies.

How about this..

If I were Ty and hypothetically put at the very top of the SW FO list to have..

1-higher pay
2-fly any schedule I wanted
3-better QOL
4-better medical
5-better retirement

I would sign up in a heartbeat. But it sounds like they want all of the above and to keep every CA seat. Sounds like a windfall.

And the arbitor will see it that way.

If being a senior FO is so great, I'm sure you won't mind staying one.

There, we've settled that.

 

[PapaWoody]

I absolutely agree with you regarding ego.

I'm talking about the seniority required to hold the seat. The seniority that protects you in bad times and the next merger.

I understand what you're saying but I disagree. If that's what you'd do in our position that's fine. Your Union would probably try to protect you from yourself if you ever have that choice to make. Like a good lawyer would.

We're not going to work it out here.

Cheers

I think the problem is we are talking about the "seniority" sufficient to hold the Captain's seat at the acquired carrier is not accompanied by the longevity to hold that same seniority and seat at the acquiring carrier. Couple this with the objective fact that the job at the acquiring carrier has always had greater career potential, quite possibly a career potential that the pilots at the acquired carrier would have never realized sans merger, and you see why SWA guys think that any talk of "relative seniority" is as ridiculous as AAI guys think the idea of a staple is. I think SWAPA can, and will, make an excellent case that anything approaching relative seniority would be a windfall at every SWA pilots expense.

However, I also agree that we aren't going to work it out here.

Fraternally,
PapaWoody

PS Arbitrators do have a tendency to make allowances for guys to retain their seats (not always, but generally); however, that doesn't mean that they necessarily award the system seniority to maintain that seat indefinitely. That's what fences are for.

 

[Ty Webb]

not necessarily. i've got a buddy who's a tranny capt and lives in dallas. i'm a mid-level swa f/o. we both know how much each other makes, me more than him. he said he would be happy with a staple:
1. no more atl commute
2. more $$$
3. more flexibility
4. eventually he will be able to drive to work, right now, will never be an option
5. better sched (although with the combo of the two companies who knows what/how lines will be written)
6. NOT airtran mgmt
7. better overall qol

if i were at a company that had such strong support to strike i don't care what seat i'm in, with the list from above, left or right i'd take it.

Great! Another senior FO that is happy to stay an FO.

It looks like this isn't going to be so tough to solve, afterall.

Anyone else?