Jobs will not be destroyed if Spirit goes out of business. Jobs will just be created at other airlines.
Wouldn't you rather an additional 500 jobs open up at an airline like Southwest, Delta, or jetBlue and 500 jobs disappear at Spirit? It will be the best for the industry. The only sacrafice will be the small group of pilots at Spirit. We need fewer airlines in this industry. I hope ALPA convinces Spirit pilots to go on strike.
I have to admit that you do have a point. One of the greatest fears here (especially senior CAs) is that ALPA will do just that: let us shut down as an example to other scumbag execs, allow us to collect strike benefits and offer us preferential interviews at other ALPA carriers.
Here's where you have it wrong, though: many of us wouldn't like to work somewhere else. We're not all misfit toys that can't get hired elsewhere. For me, I like the fact that I'm in my early 30s, get 3 or 4 weekends off a month, am able to hold an average of 16-17 days off a month, have never sat reserve, happy with my base, am building longevity for vacation time, fly nice equipment to interesting places, and enjoy the people I work with. If (big IF) we ever get the equipment that's planned, I'll enjoy all of the above in the left seat of an Airbus. Do you know how long it will take to get to that point somewhere else?
There are others here who have even more compelling reasons to stay. This isn't a bad place to work; it's a bad management to work under. Guess what? These guys will move on one day. Hey, they might get their hand in at your carrier...what should we do, shut your's down too?
I agree that we don't need to let anything resembling C9000 see the light of day at any carrier in the US. I believe that's the concensus around here (we'll find out the exact percentage very soon). As I said before, I would just assume walk away before I work under C9000; it wouldn't be the job described above, and I would be better off starting over somewhere else (or doing something else).
That said, do I hope we have do shut it down to prove a point? Hell no. I'd like to keep my job and get compensated fairly for being here.
gator