If/When Spirit Strikes

[Mike man]

That would be when they (AirTran, JetBlue, SWA) became a major airline. World Class...maybe not yet, but definitely not fly-by-night.

I said when did they cross the line from fly-by-night to world class...nothing else.

 

[AirCobra]

Once again you need to be told what responsibility means.


Yes, they do. Yes they are responsible.


Suddenly managment is the victim here. Why does SWA not have this problem. Why do insist on treating other people like trash and when the backlash comes you act surpised and judgemental?


Yet I am sure you actually believe this drivel you are posting here about management not being responsbile for their own company. Is a commanding officer responsible for his mens morale? The fact that I am actually schooling you on leadership and morale is telling....

Do you believe in civil disobedience? At what point do you stop taking sh!t and pushback? Have you no honor or integrity?



Who is responible for the buy in?

Who is responsbile for a growing, stable and profitable company??? The union?



Negative. the labor contract tells Fred what his cost are. Now his job is to manage those fixed cost over the terms of the contract. Naturally he will try and change it... but guess what... that is the purpose of a contract.

What is the difference between SWA labor and Spirits and UALs? You worked for UAL before you cut and ran... What are you saying about the UAL pilots? That Glenn is a good guy and the pilots, who took pay cuts and lost thier pensions to keep the company solvant all while Glenn and Co. took bonuses....... that the pilots are what.... say it....

Rez this is all nonsense. It is the exact kind of attitude I am talking about, blaming everything on management or that you won't do anything to help the company until management improves. This is the recipe that will lose Spirit pilots their jobs as it did for Eastern (before Lorenzo Eastern), United, and countless others. It can come from ALPA or the IAM it doesn't matter, all the labor groups will pay in the long run.

Lets get off the talking points here and talk about attitudes and culture. What is the attitude ALPA wants? What do you push? That we are ALPA pilots who work for an airline, doesn't matter which one, first and foremost we are ALPA. Is that the attitude at SWA? That they are SWAPA pilots that work for Southwest? of course not. Southwest employees have buy-in to the company. Buy-in isn't only generated by management, it has to stem from the whole organization. If management aint selling it right then the employees should be. To use a military analogy, the Army sells college, the Navy sells travel, the Air Force sells technical training, but the Marines sell being a Marine. Do you understand what that means? That is in essence is what Southwest (management and EMPLOYEES) have that Spirit and so many other airlines don't, they sell that you are Southwest, you are not SWAPA, or the IAM or ALPA or whatever. Your brothers and you family are Southwest and its employees not 120 pilots flying Metroliners in Manitoba.

Your pay and work conditions will be improved at the airline you work for if you work as a team to make the airline a success, not by some industry wide reciprocity of contracts. I think you read Nuts but missed the message. You want what Southwest has, but you don't want to do what it takes to get it. You are like a baseball player who wants a contract like A-Rod's, but only hits .220.

Since you want to use a military analogy lets talk about that. The commanding officer is responsible for the actions for his unit, but the members of that unit have already been indoctrinated into that culture through months of training. After that you are under tremendous peer pressure to perform for the integrity of the unit you are with.

Do you face tremendous peer pressure to implement even simplerevenue generating or cost cutting policies management puts in place, or is it all "oh no here they go again with their stupid ideas". Does that attitude poison all those you come in contact with? We had people at United who wouldn't shut down an engine to conserve fuel while taxiing, or would leave the APU running at the gate during the entire turnaround instead of connecting to jetway power to stick it to the "man", and their stupid ideas. Where is that airline version of the corporal or platoon sergeant that gets in your face when if you try this sort of thing. So although we say its the CO's responsibility, its really a shared responsibility.

At what point do you take responsibility for not just yourself and your fellow pilots in Manitoba, and start worrying about the people in the company you work with everyday. What about the FA's and ramp service people at your airline? Do you care about them? What are you doing to insure your company is profitable, stable, and continues to grow, especially in this environment. So spare me the hyperbole of having no honor, do you know what the word even means?


Finally your comments about Fred Smith just show how vast your detachment from reality is. Fed Ex's shipments dropped 75% last year according to some estimates and their is a worldwide slump in shipping. You honestly think that if you owned a business and saw a 75% decrease in demand that you wouldn't have to cut costs? That you would blame yourself for not managing the 75% downturn better?

Fed Ex cut costs by cutting pay and didn't layoff a single pilot but still Fred Smith is the devil according to ALPA. All you have done is set up a no win situation for management. Management must keep the company profitable but labor will reject whatever measures they take. Sounds like a winning system!

Go one preaching the same gospel but don't be surpirsed if you keep getting the same results. I guess 30 odd years and dozens of bankrupt airlines isn't enough of an indicator that not only does management need to change but perhaps labor does also. Complain Spirit's management is not Southwest, but face Spirit's employee group is not Southwest either. If Spirit goes under, so does it managment. Its all managements fault....sure right Rez, keep smokin whatever it is you are smokin, it seems like some really good $hit.

 

[pilotyip]

+1 for Aircobra

Rez this is all nonsense. It ..................Spirit's management is not Southwest, but face Spirit's employee group is not Southwest either. If Spirit goes under, so does it managment. Its all managements fault....sure right Rez, keep smokin whatever it is you are smokin, it seems like some really good $hit.

Nicely said on a completely one-sided board. I always wonder, if these guys/gals have all the answers why are they not in management saving the airline industry.

 

[AirCobra]

You worked for UAL before you cut and ran... What are you saying about the UAL pilots? That Glenn is a good guy and the pilots, who took pay cuts and lost thier pensions to keep the company solvant all while Glenn and Co. took bonuses....... that the pilots are what.... say it....

Cut and ran? I was furloughed. Many United pilots that took recalls in '06 got furloughed again.

Who cares about Tilton, you are just back to the same old populist nonsense. If he gave back every penny of his pay and bonuses to each employee we would have gotten a few hundred bucks per person. Big F’in deal. We still would have been at the bottom for customer satisfaction, on time performance, and cost per seat mile.

Well Tilton sure managed the poor corporate culture at United. He managed to outsource it to Skywest, RAH, Mesa, DGS, and Swissport among others. What did you expect when we had the highest labor costs and the lowest productivity in the industry.

 

[AirCobra]

Yes they do. Spirit management sets the tone, if they want a hostile work environment they decide, if they want all parts of the airline on the same team they decide that too. It is not the pilots who decide what type of ramp worker is hired on. You are starting to sound a little uneducated on this topic, and spare us the "I've been fling since whenever" no one cares.

It is funny how during these negotiation/strike threads you can really see the management want to be types pipe right up with ignorant thoughts on topics they really know little if anything about.

Spirit has 20 firm orders for 320's with options for 30 more...the first one shows up March 5 and starts revenue flights on the 14th.

Surprise the personal attacks start. Keep selling the "us against them" line, see where it gets you.

 

[Lear70]

Lets get off the talking points here and talk about attitudes and culture.

Your pay and work conditions will be improved at the airline you work for if you work as a team to make the airline a success, not by some industry wide reciprocity of contracts.

You ever see "Back to School" with Rodney Dangerfield? "Where should we base our imaginary business?" "How about Fantasy Land?" Well, my friend, that's where you're living.

Southwest is the ONLY parallel you can draw where this works because they are the ONLY airline where management shares their success with their employees; jetBlue marginally does so, and only does when that employee group threatens seriously to organize and unionize. No other airline does.

For example: AirTran has made 8- to 9-figure profits 9 of the last 10 years. I have watched as AirTran went from an airline where pilots went OUT OF THEIR WAY, day after day, to help out the company, because the company honored the contract and seemed to be negotiating in good faith to now, where the pilots have NO interest in helping the bottom line by single-engine taxiing, not running the APU, not picking up trips when the airline has deliberately short-staffed, etc, etc. All because the company not only is STILL asking for pay CUTS when they've averaged a $110 Million dollar NET profit YEARLY for 7 of the last 10 years, but also has cut pilot pay with contract re-interpretations, taking reserve days away with little notice to keep pilots as close to guarantee as possible, reassignments galore, and a TON of little quality of life things that really anger people - that's NOT how you motivate your employees to help keep costs down.

The cold, hard facts are that ALPA EF&A have done the analysis and a Cost-of-living increase would cost the company $20-25 Million each year at both AirTran and Spirit. That's just the cost of doing business... Fuel goes up. Catering supplies go up. Parts costs, equipment (aircraft and ground) and gate leases go up. But salaries are supposed to remain flat or go DOWN?

No WONDER pilots are increasingly disinterested in helping out. Now I'd REALLY like for you to explain to me how, when a company is PROFITABLE, it consistently demands LOWER pilot pay and, when it can't get it, TAKES it from the pilots one way or another, just exactly WHY everyone is supposed to continue to go above and beyond to save money and make the operation work?

THAT'S why you and YIP are bashed so hard on this board. You're advocating on taking a pay CUT every year in the equivalent of taking NO raises with increasing costs of living (my money spends substantially less now than it did 10 years ago as I'm now making the same thing I did in 2000), all while your company is making money? Sorry, that's not how it's supposed to work.

If a company is in trouble and losing money ever year? OK, work with the company to remain afloat. Spirit is in no such danger, and neither is AirTran. Your arguments do NOT fit the circumstances.

 

[Kalifornia]

Nicely said on a completely one-sided board. I always wonder, if these guys/gals have all the answers why are they not in management saving the airline industry.

I'm still wondering why your immediate supervisor hasn't slashed your pay to minimum wage. He/she/it is being a pure idiot not to do so with your continued quest on here to downgrade the profession as a hobby any high school drop out yokel should do for the fun of it. Here Pilotyip, here boy, here dog, another piece of jerky boy, now go fly anti-Sulley.

 

[Scope out RJ's]

I'm still wondering why your immediate supervisor hasn't slashed your pay to minimum wage. He/she/it is being a pure idiot not to do so with your continued quest on here to downgrade the profession as a hobby any high school drop out yokel should do for the fun of it. Here Pilotyip, here boy, here dog, another piece of jerky boy, now go fly anti-Sulley.

Kalifornia:
He is his immediate supervisor. He's management! That's why he posts what he posts.
I'll even forward you if you want it, a PM from this ****************************** bag regretting his decision NOT to have crossed the picket line in 83 at CAL!
With over 8000 posts, it's amazing this prick has any time to fire any of his subordinates with all the time he spends on here. I'd say he's management's wet dream, but he is management!

 

[Mike man]

Surprise the personal attacks start. Keep selling the "us against them" line, see where it gets you.

I really didn't think I attacked you in any way, I am sorry.

I don't recall saying anything about us v. them, Spirit could easily have a SWA culture but B. Ben Ballzonyouda nor his cronies want such a place. Years ago folks though SWA would fail, but Herb carved a niche out of the market and out of the book of airline management, he made it a place of synergy and made it a place where employees will bend over backwards while going the extra mile to help in any way they can.

Spirit has every department fighting with each other to cause strife, gate agents telling on pilots and spineless managers who actually believe the gate agents, flight attendants telling on other flight attendants and on pilots, ramp workers telling on pilots and flight attendants...and so on and so forth.

 

[AirCobra]

You ever see "Back to School" with Rodney Dangerfield? "Where should we base our imaginary business?" "How about Fantasy Land?" Well, my friend, that's where you're living.

Southwest is the ONLY parallel you can draw where this works because they are the ONLY airline where management shares their success with their employees; jetBlue marginally does so, and only does when that employee group threatens seriously to organize and unionize. No other airline does.

For example: AirTran has made 8- to 9-figure profits 9 of the last 10 years. I have watched as AirTran went from an airline where pilots went OUT OF THEIR WAY, day after day, to help out the company, because the company honored the contract and seemed to be negotiating in good faith to now, where the pilots have NO interest in helping the bottom line by single-engine taxiing, not running the APU, not picking up trips when the airline has deliberately short-staffed, etc, etc. All because the company not only is STILL asking for pay CUTS when they've averaged a $110 Million dollar NET profit YEARLY for 7 of the last 10 years, but also has cut pilot pay with contract re-interpretations, taking reserve days away with little notice to keep pilots as close to guarantee as possible, reassignments galore, and a TON of little quality of life things that really anger people - that's NOT how you motivate your employees to help keep costs down.

The cold, hard facts are that ALPA EF&A have done the analysis and a Cost-of-living increase would cost the company $20-25 Million each year at both AirTran and Spirit. That's just the cost of doing business... Fuel goes up. Catering supplies go up. Parts costs, equipment (aircraft and ground) and gate leases go up. But salaries are supposed to remain flat or go DOWN?

No WONDER pilots are increasingly disinterested in helping out. Now I'd REALLY like for you to explain to me how, when a company is PROFITABLE, it consistently demands LOWER pilot pay and, when it can't get it, TAKES it from the pilots one way or another, just exactly WHY everyone is supposed to continue to go above and beyond to save money and make the operation work?

THAT'S why you and YIP are bashed so hard on this board. You're advocating on taking a pay CUT every year in the equivalent of taking NO raises with increasing costs of living (my money spends substantially less now than it did 10 years ago as I'm now making the same thing I did in 2000), all while your company is making money? Sorry, that's not how it's supposed to work.

If a company is in trouble and losing money ever year? OK, work with the company to remain afloat. Spirit is in no such danger, and neither is AirTran. Your arguments do NOT fit the circumstances.

So all of this happened in a vacuum? One day Air Tran's mamangement decided "lets furlough and make everyone take paycuts". It seems if you can't discuss the economic realities of the airline industry for at least the past three years that perhaps you are the one living in Fantasy Land. It does not say much for your corporate culture if you are deliberately trying to damage your airline. Did you fail to notice that you will all lose out in the long run if you keep it up. Would you burn down your own house in a neighborhood riot?

In my previous post I mentioned that I thought if Southwest started to lose money they would start doing all the same things you just mentioned at Air Tran. Why hasn't Southwest needed to take those measures yet? Perhaps because they have a long history of working as a team, keeping costs low, customer satisfaction high, and making sound financial decisons. You can't build that overnight with a change in CEO or a lucrative union contract. All a better contract will get Spirit is a temporary increase in pay for the pilots. If nothing else changes in a short time it will be back to furloughs and pay cuts.

Management doesn't provide profits, customers do. Keep working against the customer in an effort to show up mamangement or only for the self interest of your bargining group, and those profits may never return. The attitude you displayed is the ugly side of what ALPA has done. ALPA has pitted your pilot group against managment and against other labor groups at your airline. Its glaring when you mentioned "ALPA told you this", or "ALPA's study shows". Well no duh, ALPA is going to find exactly what it wants to support its myopic argument. Lets wreck the airline until we get a better contract. Great strategy!

If you think Spirit aint in trouble given their stagnation and contraction over the past few years, the econonmy, the lowest customer satifaction in the industry, and serving a depressed market then perhaps you should look outside ALPA's talking points for information.