Got the Shuttle America TA in my hand...

[tango uniform]

I don't know whether to scream or laugh!

What a joke! Endorsed by our union as "possibly not the last offer out there, but probably the best we will get" this birdcage liner is a hoot and a holler!

Summary:

10% pay cut for Captains
0% fo FOs
12 month duration

Snapback if mgmt or other employees get a raise over current pay--but NOT if management is "unfrozen" from last spring

Reimbursment if SA "ceases operation" within 12 months--NOT if you are furloughed. NOT if they keep a plane, 5 managers and the certificate.

"Preferential Hiring", based on criteria TBD at CHQ IF AND ONLY IF the TA is ratified, otherwise banned for life.

Pref hiring to be awarded when vacancies open at CHQ following all recalls (and poolies?) at bottom of seniority (ed. note: as it should be)

Pref hiring wannabes to "sign up for a list" at SA to be given to CHQ for consideration. List to be ordered by SA seniority.

Senior SA pilots make elect to go to CHQ in lieu of a junior SA pilot facing furlough.

Failing to affirm TA will result in shutdown, as previously briefed.

A reminder that it is easier to find a new job when you already have one.

TA must be voted upon and returned within 18 hours to allow counting on Tuesday, 23 Sept

----------------------

and now, for those who like flashbacks, set your wayback machines to earlier this summer for an encore of:
Divide and Conquer 101--as presented by Professer SD.

So, we take away the FO concessions and hope they will vote for keepiing their jobs--bird in the hand, right?

We hope that the a few Captains will realize they are unemployable elsewhere and will elect to vote yes.

We dangle the carrot of JETS! at CHQ.

Maybe, just maybe, we can scare enough people into voting yes!

Don't you believe this for a second!

What is the guarantee of SA beyond next spring?
What is with TSA ramping-up J-41 ops?
How long until we can be replaced?
How long will you FOs be unemployed between your INEVITABLE furlough from here and CHQs CONDITIONAL hiring?
Do you really want more Wexford? That's what you are asking for.

No, that's what you are PAYING for. The privilege for more of the same.

Face facts, we don't fit in U's long term plans. No other airline really wants 30 seat TP feed. These planes ARE going away. If we stick with the master plan of Wexford, you WILL be furloughed as the planes are returned. Senior pilots like me will take your slot to go to CHQ. Please note that there is NO guarantee of a % of SA pilots per CHQ class. Only that they will be considered.

Preferential hiring does NOT mean that you will be hired!

And finally, why did this "miracle" itself into existence AFTER Scotty announced our shutdown? AFTER he blamed the pilots. AFTER the front office emailed his statement to the press.

Stop the lies.
Stop the FUD.
Stop this abortion of a TA.

Stop Wexford.

 

[stillaboo]

If it passes, looks like Mesa bashing will be a thing of the past on FI. This TA has "bash me" written all over it!

Let me go on record as saying "I TOLD YOU SO, SA!" right now.

 

[dispatchguy]

VOTE NO

VOTE NO

VOTE NO

VOTE NO

If you vote that POS in, you have no one to blame but yo-self

 

[tango uniform]

It is not available online and i did not think that copying it verbatim was entirely kosher until it has been voted down. I mean on.

I don't know if it will pass or not. Even I, "Honorary Cheerleader of the Dark Side" (as a scheduling manger refered to me) have been amazed at the amount and intensity of the ill-will towards mgmt that the pilots hold. I do not know if it will be enough.

But I do like that mgmt spent $500,000 on painting the cinderblocks for 10,000 sq ft of office space. I am sure that the citizens of FWA would be pleased to know how their hard earned tax money was spent.

Meanwhile mgmt tries to sell us on the light at the end of the tunnel even though we can hear the train whistle......

 

[tiktak]

funny
remark I heard today from a ramprat.
why you 200k pilots have absolutly no consideration for the other workers.
There is a major public education in order.

AFTER the front office e-mailed his statement to the press.

What other lies are spread.

Vote NO

 

[godsgift2aviatn]

You gotta know when to hold them and when to fold them.

 

[tiktak]

"Preferential Hiring", based on criteria TBD at CHQ IF AND ONLY IF the TA is ratified, otherwise banned for life.

Pref hiring to be awarded when vacancies open at CHQ following all recalls (and poolies?) at bottom of seniority (ed. note: as it should be)

Pref hiring wannabes to "sign up for a list" at SA to be given to CHQ for consideration. List to be ordered by SA seniority.

Senior SA pilots make elect to go to CHQ in lieu of a junior SA pilot facing furlough.


What a Hosescr@p!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you realy think wexford would do this.

For CHQ to hire one candidate off the street, 1 training class.

To Hire a Senior SA Capt.
first the training @ CHQ
then a SA FO upgrade.
then a SA Newhire.

For CHQ to hire a Senior SA Captan it would take 3 training classes.


Economics 101
Chapter 112
"Idiotic Ideas And Guarantied Failures"

To item this is an insult to my Intelligence.

Even if this would be a serious item for concideration, CQE's MEC would have to sign off on this.

Looks to me like an empty threat, even if agreed and accepted, mgmt could not follow through.
So this part of the proposal is a non-starter. DOA

 

[skootertrash]

If I worked there it would almost be worth it being unemployed just to know that management would be on the street as well.

 

[tango uniform]

Amen skootertrash. That's one of the things that lets me sleep like a baby at night.

That and a family size bottle of Nyquil.

 

[328dude]

looks to me that you have the same chances at going to CHQ as anyone else. No matter what you do, your still on the bottom again.......

 

[tiktak]

Pilots are not to blame

Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2003

Shuttle America working on plan
Pilots are not to blame for possible closing, official says.
By Doug LeDuc
of The News-Sentinel

Shuttle America was still working on a debt restructuring plan Wednesday that could prevent the Fort Wayne-based commuter airline from folding.

"The game's not over," said Scott Durgin, chief executive officer. "We've been given approximately a week to resolve the issues."

Shuttle America employs 305 workers, including 150 at 11102 W. Perimeter Road. Tuesday, the company sent a memo to employees saying it will discontinue operation between Oct. 27 and Dec. 31 "in the absence of any new developments that would permit us to operate."

The memo said Shuttle America had reached agreements with Saab, US Airways, Wexford and several other creditors to reduce its obligations and restructure its debt, but the agreements were conditioned on pilot wage concessions. And a recent pilot vote overwhelmingly rejected the concession package, it said.

The pilots are represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 264, which could not be reached for comment.

Durgin said Wednesday that Shuttle America is still talking with the pilots and "one of the disappointments that we've seen is that this is coming across as if the pilots are to blame."

The pilots bear no responsibility for conditions other stakeholders attached to their agreements for the restructuring plan, he said.

"I've been working feverishly on trying to preserve the previously agreed to proposals or restructure them or amend them so we meet the requirements that our creditors or stakeholders have put forth."

Durgin would not discuss details of two different marketing campaigns the memo described as a "long shot" to preserve the airline's future.

Shuttle America operates 20 aircraft to provide connecting flights to US Air in Pittsburgh for Fort Wayne and 19 other cities.

The company is not new to financial difficulty. It filed for bankruptcy in April 2001, and was bought out of bankruptcy the following winter by Wexford Capital, which also owned Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines.

Since its reorganization in December 2001, the company has incurred $16 million in operational losses, Durgin said.

The war in Iraq and SARS outbreak in China are among factors that have prevented business travel from recovering to healthier levels before the major terrorist attacks two years ago on New York and Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, fuel prices have risen as the airline industry's security costs have tripled and insurance costs have doubled, Durgin said, noting US Air filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. "It's been a difficult industry environment."

 

[FlyingFarmer]

Sounds Like More Scare Tactics and Beggi

SA Pilots-

Shut that company down-
and put "Scott" on the unemployment
line.

You'll make more at Lowes, or
Landscaping, my friend is making
40,000 running a crew of immigrants
cutting grass and putting in shrubs.

He's home every night.

This is just managements tactics to
further lower the bar-
and as the bar at the regionals go,
so goes the bar at the majors, the
cheaper the regionals work for, eventually.....
the cheaper the majors will have to work for-

Remember FO's at S.A.-
The pilots reviewing your resume's
at other airlines remember stuff like
this--- That goes for the Mesa plugs too-

Best of Luck----

 

[tango uniform]

Well, since one of the "longshots" was UAL--I'm not holding my breath.

The other WAS Frontier. Congrats Horizon! Q400s and CR7s trumped our SF340/A. Imagine that.

Tiktak makes a great point about the training costs. Ashamed I failed to mention that!

Folks, the planes ARE going back beginning in October. We are nothing but a tool to prop up CHQs balance sheet (which has nothing to do with CHQ pilots--I shouldn't have to say that, though).

Take a pay cut to do what you were already doing but now with less staff? No job security. No future at SA. Uncertainty (at best) as to an opportunity at CHQ.

You are reducing your own unemployment benfits BEFORE they throw you out in the cold this winter!!

His minions are inflating their resumes as they prepare to scurry like rats from the sinking ship. (if not--why the rush to get typed, gentlemen?)
You are offered nothing but a warm fuzzy of a pseudo-job offer that has more holes than Nevada brothel.

Just say no to drugs.

'cause that's what you'd have to be on to believe any of their promises.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Stop Wexf.... Errrr.... Tango Uniform,

You have been hollering about gloom and doom, unfair management dealings, unreliable aircraft, etc. for the better part of four months now under your various aliases.

I've read most of your posts, even agreeing on some points, but nonetheless I find myself wondering:

Have you tried to find other work but failed? Have you been holding out, hoping things would improve? You once suggested that you didn't work here AT ALL, but then said you had to tone down your posts because you were concerned about retaliation? (actually I think I might have the order of the last two reversed)

But the real question is... WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? If, of course, you ever WERE here? Surely with a Dash type you could join those headed down to the eye-lands.

It is clear you haven't a single nice thing to say about anything Shuttle America. I'd think that you would have moved on to greener pastures by now.

If not, why not?

Your many fans await your answer with our collective breaths held.

 

[tango uniform]

It is clear you haven't a single nice thing to say about anything Shuttle America.

Not true. I enjoy the free lunch during recurrent ground school. I have always said so and thanked mgmt accordingly.

I also like most all of the ladies in the front office, those who are still with us, and positively adore Sheri, Lori, and Bonnie.

I have never met a mechanic I didn't like.

I don't really know our CS people in FWA too well, but have enjoyed my interactions with them.

I don't recall making statements about unreliable a/c--they are what they are--but I wouldn't go if I didn't think they were safe (coke cans and associated corrosion not withstanding).

Family has kept me from moving down southways--ten years ago, though...

As to greener pastures:

Well, see, that's the rub. If SA pulls a Mesa, then some of that poop WILL get flung over the fence and stink up where I've gone. Ask anyone who has been asked for givebacks to little or no end. People like, oh, US.

Failed to find other work? Well, I did (foolishly) send a resume to CHQ at the onset of this silliness. See, I am one of the "urban legends" whose disloyalty to the Wexford Reich was reported back to our leaders.

This TA is a fraud. Our so-called future is a fraud. Calling me a fraud won't change the first two.

However, I do not have a 747-4 type. Sorry to deceive. Send me to my room with out concessions or a job.

No need to spank me--had two years of it here.

 

[I.P. Freley]

LOL no spanking involved, just questions.

And a fraud? I wasn't the one who suggested that you didn't work here, that was you... I believe the wording was "Who says I even work at Shuttle America?", or something similar. So... no need to spank back, either.

I will admit that CHQ reporting back to FWA about people applying for positions there is a new one. I've heard just about every imaginable rumor and that one hasn't come my way yet.

And too bad about the 747 type being a bit o'fiction. I believe one of the aforementioned fanciful rumors was started by ME, saying that we'd be initiating 747 service from Pit to Johnstown. You'd have been eligible to be a check airman (airwoman? even your gender is an enigma) in such an operation.

 

[LuvMyJob]

Re: Sounds Like More Scare Tactics and Beggi

SA Pilots-

and as the bar at the regionals go,
so goes the bar at the majors, the
cheaper the regionals work for, eventually.....
the cheaper the majors will have to work for-


Best of Luck----

First thanks for your support!

Second, I don't think that 100 derelects flying 30 seat p.o.s. are going to have an outcome on 777 pay at UAL. And the big boys should just look in the mirror, there is no way in hell they should have allowed any "commuter" airline to fly 50, 70, or 90 seat jets in the first place!

 

[I.P. Freley]

My vote is noone's business other than my own.

I do, however, have positive things to say about the company... The line pilots, the dispatchers, the flight attendants, the SA employees in fact as a whole are a good bunch. I know everyone seems to say "I work with the best people out there", which is logically impossible, but I will say I know of none that are the better of ours. A lot of us have sacrificed a lot to keep this place going, and I appreciate and applaud the efforts of every Shuttle America employee. The heroes to me are not Comair in better times, but the non-pilot people who stayed here in the face of a six-month pay cut... And the pilots who continue to top the USAirways Express system in on-time and completion factor in the face of almost insurmountable odds, and with unnecessary roadblocks placed in their way.

My feelings about the ramp personnel in PIT are best left unrecorded, however.

The point is that I have seen nothing from actual SA employees on this board that is positive as of late... And I do understand why. Morale is depressingly low, and it is forcing people to tender their resignations. I spoke at length with a pilot today, a friend, a person I respect greatly and wish only the best for... Spoke about why he is leaving. I wish him the best, I wish we could continue to work together, but I found myself unable to come up with any reason why he should stay in light of recent developments.

Do you understand how it hurts to see good people leave? Friends who have thrown up their hands and cried "ENOUGH!!"? ...and know exactly how they feel? Do you understand how empty you feel when you read a "new" TA that will keep you in business, at least for a while, but realize you could fly a 1900 and make more money (and, as I recall, have more fun doing it)?

Do you understand that through all the hopelessness, you still somehow manage to scrounge up a shred of hope of better things to come? I got into flying roughly ten years ago. Only twice can I recall that I stopped liking it... That was the five months after 9/11 when I wasn't doing it anymore, and ironically, the LAST five months. More and more it just seems like work, and not the good kind.

Still I stick with it, fervently hoping that things can be turned around. Faith in the face of uncertainty. I still have some.

Some.

"Derelect" or not.

 

[NoName]

GOt a question Shuttle Folks with the CHQ pref hiring. CHQ is rumored to have big growth, certainly more than 100 pilot will be needed within a year if even half of what those guys are saying is true. With a pilot group the size of only 100-200, (if thats wrong please correct me) losing, say.. 25 capt to some type of pref deal would be a huge loss for shuttle and big time training costs. Whats the catch here? Is there something deep within the lines. I just dont see an airline brining you in for an interview without the intention of hiring you.

I guess bottom line is...
CHQ will have more than 100 vacancies, even after furloughees and poolies, so theoreticaly the entire shuttle pilot list could be over there, and that just doesnt sound realastic...

 

[I.P. Freley]

Well our TA theoretically allows us to go to CHQ, but the suspicious side of me says that somehow it won't quite work out that way.

I think that for purely monetary reasons most SA captains, at least, will keep their seats at SA... Keeping a "DOH" as of the time they are given a slot at CHQ, and stick around at SA until such time as their DOH would keep them off reserve, at the very least.

Barring the shutdown of the company I don't think you have anything to worry about when it comes to a sudden influx of SA pilots into CHQ... Even if the deal works out as it is allegedly supposed to.

The TA even says that it is in the best interests of CHQ to keep SA operating. I don't think that SA will be shut down anytime within the next year, which is the point that more airplanes go back.