How are you going to get home??????

[mckpickle]

Re: Hypocrits.

You guys talk big about screwing your fellow pilots, but lets see you be all high and mighty when you have to fly on us or not get to work the next day or not get to home for some important family event. You guys talk all big on the bulletin board, but we'll see you guys in the cockpit with jump slip in hand and a big ol' smile on your face when it suits you.

Sorry pal, I'll buy an ID 90 or take a cab. And to think how many times I went out of MY way to offer support for what you were going through. Truely pathetic.

 

[100LL... Again!]

Big talk seldom materializes into real action.

It sure looks like fun, though.

 

[Nindiri]

I don't think the Mesa pilots need to worry much. The vast majority of us are professionals, and do not use the jumpseat as a weapon or for politics. Mesa pilots are always welcome in my jumpseat, and I say "Thanks" to the Mesa crews who have given me rides in the past. If somebody is dumb enough to pay for an ID90 instead of taking a free ride, well, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

 

[flaps30]

8 days off

With only eight days off per month, where are you gonna jumpseat to? Mesa owns your azz now, you guys are now the offical Walmart of aviation.

 

[SanJuanPlebe]

Mesa Pilots-TA Protects Scope

Folks,

We had to give up the hopes of a good contract in order to get scope. Industry leading scope that will protect ALL of us in the future. Look at what Chautaqua is going through with Republic. Mesaba with Big Sky.

CCAir pilots took a bullet for us and voted down a substandard contract and D. Woerth wouldn't sign the POS they finally passed after the company waited to make an offer until all of the probationary CCAir pilots were off probation and could vote to save their jobs (which they did, 72% passage on the concessionary CCAir Contract).

Our TA has rock solid scope that stops almost immediately Freedom Airlines. We no longer have to worry about a whipsaw at Mesa Air Group.

As for the rest of the TA, note that every section except minimum bid guarantee has enhancements. That means we got improvements. Were they great? No. Where they what we wanted? Absolutely not. Where they what we deserve? Hell NO!

However, they were improvements. It stopped Freedom. It put CCAir pilots back to work along with hundreds of furloughed US Airways pilots immediately.

So we didn't "lower the bar" as the bar was already low with us. We raised it. Although not as much as Comair or Air Willy. But when you don't have ANY leverage, well you do what you have to. We saw our jobs disappear every day to new Freedom planes and pilots. Your ire should be directed at them. Had they not stepped up to enable JO to start that airline, we very well may have been able to negotiate a much better deal.

But again, this contract has improvements in every section, including new cancellation pay and a commuter clause. Now, next time, we improve them.

But don't take my word for it, our TA is posted elsewhere on this website.

And the jumpseat should not be a tool in which to advance a political agenda. Our management recently did that with Skywest and I truly hope pilots are more professional than management.

 

[Beechnut]

The benefit of an airline to develop a pilot school is to have an endless supplies of students that will take little pay (because it was better than no pay as a student) and will be glad to get in a twin engine airplane, let alone a Regional Jet.

JO was smart to dilute the work force with a plethora of SanJuanPlebes.

S

 

[Wiskey Driver]

You had to give up hopes of a good contract???????????? YOU NEVER EVER GIVE UP, you hold the fukin line and put them out of business if necessary. The plain an simple truth is you caved and were scared and now others have to try and weed thru the mess you left behind. A NO VOTE would have sent a clear message we want industry standard, instead you said paper or plastic... You guys sicken me and you disgraced the profession. Had to give j4j that's super seniority you know. Get used to the right seat even if you are in the left now it won't be long before the super senior USAIR guys bump you back to the right. You guys are super stupid!!!

WD.

 

[100LL... Again!]

Beechnut-

Bingo, bingo, bingo. THIS is our largest problem.

Peraps we need to negotiate 'flight experience' scope. Now THERE would be something that could turn things around a little.

 

[CRJ Driver]

Re: Mesa Pilots-TA Protects Scope

So we didn't "lower the bar" as the bar was already low with us. We raised it. Although not as much as Comair or Air Willy. But when you don't have ANY leverage, well you do what you have to. We saw our jobs disappear every day to new Freedom planes and pilots. Your ire should be directed at them. Had they not stepped up to enable JO to start that airline, we very well may have been able to negotiate a much better deal. /QUOTE]


You moron, the leverage is, SHUT THE MOTHER FUKER DOWN, but you guys were to afraid. Have fun in the right seat of the RJ for the next 10 years.

 

[Beechnut]

I wouldn't expect Mesa pilots to negotiate anything of the sort. They've already failed miserably. How can they stand to negotiate an "experience" clause with support from the plebes?

I do NOT discount the idea that part of AirWis's strength is the pilot group consists of experienced professionals from other airlines. We didn't even hire flight instructors when the times were good! This strength comes from experience, an unwillingness to work for a less than standard compensation, and to be treated as professionals. All of which can be found to be lacking in what, 78% of the Mesa pilot group? You didn't even have to INSTRUCT to get a job at Mesa. Of course you're happy to work for a pittance. You deserve it, you got it, now deal with the consequences.

So the original questions still stands and I have yet to see an answer. How will you guys get home?

hmmmmmmmmmmm?

S.

 

[steveg]

WOW!

I am an about to be a furloughed major guy, who just read this board for the first time. I recently JS'd on Mesa for the first time. They were very cordial, and because I got to where I wanted to go, I got a corporate job. I am extremely indebted to the guys that let me ride. Then I read through all this CRAP, and am shocked.

Who are you to criticize Mesa? Are you in their shoes? I admit I don't understand all the politics, but sheesh! EVERYONE in this industry is skating on VERY THIN ICE right now. If UAL liquidates, then what is going to happen to you Air Wisc. guys that feel so high and mighty as to look down on Mesa? For that matter, what happens when AA and UAL and DAL take 30% pay cuts? Your pay check will be the next thing mgt. goes after. What then? Will you be pissed at the majors for not DEMANDING better pay? Will you be begging Mesa to give you a JS so you can make it to an interview, or begging them for a job?

I haven't been around forever (been around the business my entire life!) but I've been here long enough to know that whoever is on top of the scrap heap is only there for a short time. When you get to the top, you better **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** well be cordial to whoever is at your heels, because they are about to pull you down. One of the number one problems in this business is the pilots who think they are better than everyone else. I submit to you that Air Wis., and Skywest, and whoever else you want to name, are in really bad shape right now. You may have better pay than Mesa, but are your jobs any better off? Ever hear the expression, Highest pay till the last day? Remember, the people you won't give the JS too, and you look down on (for something that you cannot truly understand) are the people you are going to begging to help you tommorrow.

Steve

 

[mckpickle]

But Steveg, thats what you dont understand. By Mesa voting this pos in, they have allowed themselves to "undercut" anyone else in the industry. Now who do you think the Majors are going to go looking at for feed? A company that pays very well, or one that has slave wages. And on top of that, within days of the TA coming out, Management come to OUR pilot group and say, no way can we give you what you want because MESA just undercut.

They think they did this for "air tight scope" . Tell me, as you work for a major, How air tight is your scope?

 

[aviatrix]

Who are you to criticize Mesa? Are you in their shoes? I admit I don't understand all the politics, but sheesh! EVERYONE in this industry is skating on VERY THIN ICE right now. If UAL liquidates, then what is going to happen to you Air Wisc. guys that feel so high and mighty as to look down on Mesa? For that matter, what happens when AA and UAL and DAL take 30% pay cuts? Your pay check will be the next thing mgt. goes after. What then? Will you be pissed at the majors for not DEMANDING better pay? Will you be begging Mesa to give you a JS so you can make it to an interview, or begging them for a job?

Very well said, steveg! I wish you much luck through your furlough and on into your corporate job.
It's the same seven Mesa-bashers on this board and by no means the majority!

 

[SanJuanPlebe]

Mesa TA Questions & Answers

First off, no one at Mesa is happy with this contract in its present
form. However looking at the overall picture of the economy, the
fiscal strength of our codeshare partners and the fact that each of
our five codeshare partners(HP/US/ME/F9/UAL) have taken the Fed Money
to stay in operation and the fact that JO was just stalling for time
to build Freedom - our negotiating committee felt it was the best we
could get in this environment. Two of our codeshare partners have
filed CH 11 and we're concerned they are going to file CH 7. So
looking at the big picture, I have to agree with them. Currently we
have 5-10 year contract extensions with HP/US that give us route
protection even if they continue in or file CH. 11.

The offer was also put on the table by mistake by our CEO. He never
had intended to put anything real on the table. He hadn't really put
anythin on the table up to this point. But on this day, he put up a
hypothetical offer and felt that it wouldn't be accepted by the NMB
rep. as an offer...he was wrong - we went to caucus. He had never
once put scope on the table. He gave us an outrageous offer in the
heat of anger that he thought we'd turn down. In fact, after he said
what he said, his attorney just put his face in his hands. He hadn't
any intentions of doing that. He wanted to put a hypothetical offer
on the table and use the notes/sound bites from the negotiations to
take it to the pilots and show them that their union had an offer on
the table but turned it down and that is the reason Freedom was
growing and the fact that mesa was shrinking. He had serious
intentions of furloughing 200 at the end of that day of negotiations.
Our negotiating committee had several dealings with JO over the past
years. They felt that he wasn't bluffing this time - other times they
could tell he was but this time was different and they knew it. We
were very close to going into a 30-day cooling off period when we had
our accident in CLT. That was played and maximized to the company's
benefit in stalling negotiations and thus enabling them more time to
grow Freedom. They asked for a six month reprieve from negotiations -
they were only awarded 30 days. Either way, that delay, the pending
middle east conflict and the rise of Freedom really hurt us in
leverage. We would have a hard time getting any sympathy with a
strike in the middle of a war. We didn't feel that the White House
would work fairly with us because JO had already been in contact with
them. The fact that our codeshare partners had Fed Money means to me
that Bush wasn't going to let us walk the line that easily. If we had
turned the TA down we would have had to reelect and train a
negotiating committee(6-8 mos). By that time, our Freedom wing would
have had over 500-600 pilots. When we signed this TA - Freedom had 56
guys on-line with another 40 in training and another 40 coming for
training. Mesa is currently spooling up with two concurrent ground
schools montly to fill the vacancies that we have on the Freedom
side. 0600-1500 and 1500-2400 are the ground school times with 30 in
each class. That is 60 pilots per month. By June, they would have had
well over 300 pilots and Mesa would have begun to take the flying
from Mesa and give it to Freedom. Then we would have lost what little
leverage we had remaining. Had we not had that accident we would have
gone out for 30 days around the time this TA was signed(a month and a
half ago) when we would have had more leverage because Freedom was so
small at that time, the war talk was nothing more than sabre rattling
and Mesa was taking large aircraft deliveries.

It's important that you know that we didn't negotiate this secton or
for that matter seven other sections. We had spoken to US Alpa and
knew that the deadline for the J4J agreement was the following
morning at 0800. We didn't share that knowledge with him of course.
JO put the offer up on the table went something like this:

JO: (beginning of negotiations) "We have to have a deal today by 1700
or furlough notices go out for 200 tomorrow morning"
ALPA: Negotiates for four hours to no avail. Then at 1615 hours the
following round of discussions occur.

JO: (yelling at ALPA) "Why won't you take the f'ing deal?
ALPA: (ALPA Calmly)"Simple, there's no scope."
JO: (in extreme anger)Your F'ing scope, the agreed upon sections and
the rest of my offer?
ALPApauses to think - this is the only time he has ever offered
anything - chats with his partner) "We'd like to go to caucus on
that."
JO: "What?, that wasn't an offer - it was a hypothetical!"
ALPA and JO look at the NMB Deputy Chief of Staff who was mediating
the negotiations
NMB: "Sounded like an offer to me".
MESA ATTORNEY: puts face in hands and shakes head
ALPA Retreats to caucus because we had to have an answer to him in 45
minutes or the deal is off and furloughs begin.
ALPA returns and accepts the offer
JO: "I'll have to think about it?"
NMB:"You have to think about your own offer?" NMB looks rather
sternly at JO.....
JO: "We accept".

Had JO not accepted it - we would have requested a 30 day cooling off
period immediately. I'm pretty sure we would have gotten it.

What we did win was scope protection. This was our single biggest
victory. This captured Freedom airlines under our ALPA contract. It
also prevents JO from whipsawing us in the same manner that he has in
the past. ie with CC Air and Freedom. He can't just start up an alter-
ego airline again - if he does, its under our agreement. We're not
happy with the QOL issues or $$$ but we can wait for another day to
fight that particular battle This was part of the JO's "my offer"
that was on the table. Had we tried to discuss or change any section
of the contractual offer - he could have revoked his offer and then
furloughed guys and put us all on the street within 18 months. NO
DOUBTS

All CRJ crews are going to be trained on the 200/700/900. What you
make will depend what they put on your route for operational
flexibility due to load capacity needed. We'll operate each
200/700/900's out of our PHX base.

Anyone that gives Mesa guys any crap for not towing the line in
negotiations doesn't know the full story. We did what we could to
capture Freedom in scope which was our primary goal. We set a
prescedent in regards to that. We just lost our leverage due to our
unfortunate accident in CLT. It's quite shameful that our management
would use that tragic accident as leverage in their pursuits - but
they did. Just shows you the character of the men we were dealing
with at that time.

Now to add insult to injury I see some of you guys threatning -
promising - not to offer the courtesy of a jumpseat rider from Mesa.
This is unfortunate. I hope that the majority of the pilots don't
feel that way. We did what we had to do in this battle but the war is
far from over.

 

[mckpickle]

Wow, you guys fell for JO. Your neg com. should be hung. Did ya ever think any of that was staged????? Face it JO is better than the Mesa neg com. He beat you guys. Beat ya all real good. I guess your neg com forgot that if he furloughed everyone no one would fly the airplanes


You guys got beotch slapped! Then you said, "HIT me again IKE and this time PUT SOME STANK ON IT"