It Has Begun!

[Sioux115]

The propaganda from the company which is what they claim is just being informative, posted the initial we're ready to negotiate letter to the IBT on onyourhorizon. I don't remember seeing any letters to unions of the flight attendants or mechs. posted when they were amending their agreements. Interesting. Its all about being in line with market pay of other regional carriers and lots of pretty graphs. They offered ways of reducing the pilot pay rates while not reducing our income on our W-2s with bonus programs(profit sharing). I don't understand how that would save money if we are making the same amount other than the fact that they can take away the profit sharing when they want. All that I know is that we are in no hurry to negotiate and are happy with what we have. And we also seem to be pretty profitable as it is now. So I don't know how they can back up their argument. It will be very ugly. OUT!

 

[P-Dawg_QX]

Yeah, really nice of them to call us out in front of the entire company. Nice little punk move to get things started. As far as the letter goes, Art is either dreaming, going senile, or both. Regardless, I pretty much laughed at what he had to say.

 

[low&slow]

They can have it out of my dead hands...

l&s

 

[rgnlwannabe]

I like how they compared our Q400 rate (FO's) to Skywests Brasilia120. I don't think that is comparing apples to apples. Also at they end they said something about working twice as hard for the same pay. Ummm...we already do 400 hours time away from base with pretty brutal schedules, how are we going to work more? Let the fun begin! :angryfire

 

[QXbuzzard]

This is going to be very fun. I find it interesting that he mentioned Alaska and their ways of saving money without having to file for bankruptcy protection. Ok first off, they still wouldn't have needed bankruptcy if the Alaska pilots didn't get paycuts. Another thing, he mentions that it gives the IBT and Horizon time to agreements to avoid life-changing pay reductions that have occured at other carriers. So Alaska taking their large paycut wasn't a life-changing pay reduction? We usually live a lifestyle our salaries allow. Taking a 34% paycut would change anyone's life no matter the salary.

 

[Icelandair]

What makes asking for paycuts even more absurd is the fact that they closed the bases where a person could even try to afford to live (BOI, GEG). All the real estate people in the SEA area are as greedy as the gas station owners and rip off the average person trying to buy a house.

 

[FlyingToIST]

I hope you guys can make through this. Your crews are doing a great job carrying me to work every week to LWS and you have a nicely paid salaries compared to other low lifers. One F/O that i talked to was explaining to me why Frontier chose you over Mesa. I hope you stand up to the management and get a raise instead of reduction of wages.

 

[wmudriver]

Go get get'em guys! Good luck with this crap. It seems like if you have a decent or better contract, the bullseye is on you. Heaven forbid we make a living. Will this be your second section 6 with IBT?

 

[embdrvr]

I like how they compared our Q400 rate (FO's) to Skywests Brasilia120. I don't think that is comparing apples to apples. :angryfire

Sure they are. After all they both have propellers and P&W engines if I remember the details correctly. They both make money for their respective carrier. Of course that 400 carries a lot more people and makes a lot more money. But hey, they're the same, right? Maybe your managment could convince skywest managment that the Brasilia drivers should be making at least as much as the Q-400 drivers.

 

[ReverseSensing]

Will this be your second section 6 with IBT?

This is the first time that the first contract is amendable, so I guess that makes it the first section 6 letter.

I'm more intrigued than nervous. It's nice being in the drivers' seat, so to speak. It would be in management's best interest (notice I didn't say company's best interest) to hurry things along, but from my perspective, things are working well at Horizon. Why mess with a good thing?