Kolski makes NPA tuck tale and run!

[j41driver]

Many of your points about activism are valid, but taking a swipe at another organized pilot group is just not acceptable.

Even if he is a member of that organized pilot group?

 

[PCL_128]

I wondered the same thing...perhaps the anonymity provided here has something to do with it.

Probably has something to do with it. I've heard that even Brad's forum has been leaked to management types.

 

[Uppercrust]

Mike Best would make a great MEC Chairman. As it stands now, he's just a figurehead of an impotent union that stands no chance against men like Kolski.

I like Kolski.

 

[Ty Webb]

My guess is that if we had signed that POS that you would be seeing outsourced 85 seat RJ's on the property right now, maybe also some Q400's, and a lot of your fellow pilots on the street.

Sure, I would like to be making an additional $10K this year, but it wouldn't be worth it to see my fellow Trannies on the street.

Anyone that is actually saying otherwise was obviously dropped on their head as a child, and from a great height. . . .


TW

 

[Colonel Savage]

My guess is that if we had signed that POS that you would be seeing outsourced 85 seat RJ's on the property right now, maybe also some Q400's, and a lot of your fellow pilots on the street.

Ty- I thought AAI went through the RJ experiment with AirWis in 2004 and decided that the RJ outsourcing wasn't profitable enough and dropped them.

SWA doesn't use them and makes money in every year and all the airlines that have RJ "partners" lost money big time for years. Fuel prices are making smaller RJ's obsolete.

Why do they want relaxed scope and RJ's?

 

[PCL_128]

50-seaters are obsolete. 70-seaters are break-even. 86+ seaters are still very profitable and give them the added whipsaw advantage. There's a reason that they wanted that 86-seat scope giveaway.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

ALPA has big problems..... but they know how to picket a shareholders meeting...

Called off by an email from management? I'd expect at least a phone call if not a meeting....

wow...

 

[SkiFishFly]

Why didn't we put out in the press about how a group of concerned shareholders (who happen to be employees) were essentially told not to come to a share holder meeting by company management?

Telling shareholders they are not welcome at a shareholder meeting has to be illegal...

 

[Lear70]

I wondered the same thing...perhaps the anonymity provided here has something to do with it.

BINGO!

Ty- I thought AAI went through the RJ experiment with AirWis in 2004 and decided that the RJ outsourcing wasn't profitable enough and dropped them.

They did. They were using 50-seaters which have NEVER made money, except to bring in international high-yield passengers to the hub to connect.

SWA doesn't use them and makes money in every year and all the airlines that have RJ "partners" lost money big time for years. Fuel prices are making smaller RJ's obsolete.

You said it... SMALLER RJ's.

Why do they want relaxed scope and RJ's?

PCL said it. 86-seat CRJ 900's and Q-400's would be a good replacement for the 717 on many, shorter routes, and are MUCH more cost-efficient on leg segments less than 90 minutes.

Bombardier is offering GREAT financing terms for those aircraft, and airTran has made no efforts to hide the fact that they're shopping for a buyer for the 717's.

If they had the new T.A. with relaxed Scope, they could bring up to 20 90-seat CRJ's and UNLIMITED Q-400 turboprops, all farmed out to a subsidiary with non-airTran pilots, then sell large numbers of 717's and not have to pare down or stop using the affiliate RJ's and turboprops.

This was the biggest red flag to me and the main reason why I did the T.A. Rebuttal paper. Top reasons to vote NO.

Scope concessions.
Not binding to airTran holdings.
Pay raises not even equal to COLA.
Pay raises received by raping other seniority groups (new hires and retirees).
Scheduling section nowhere NEAR what we needed, with concessions in reserve language as well.
Give-backs in health care
Give-backs in retirement benefits
No fixes for the hotel issues airTran has.

There were only 2 or 3 decent things in the whole T.A., including a small 401(k) match and, expedited arbitration (which would have helped me right now).

Just wasn't worth all the concessions.

ALPA has big problems..... but they know how to picket a shareholders meeting...

Called off by an email from management? I'd expect at least a phone call if not a meeting....

wow...

Yeah...

Still waiting to hear exactly why it was such a big deal that we took the confidence hit from the membership to cancel it over an email.

Kolski gets excited about a lot of things. Most of it's for show and effect and, unfortunately, it's effective. We need our own pit bull to throw in the ring with him.

 

[Lear70]

Why didn't we put out in the press about how a group of concerned shareholders (who happen to be employees) were essentially told not to come to a share holder meeting by company management?

Telling shareholders they are not welcome at a shareholder meeting has to be illegal...

It is. Kolski didn't tell the NPA they weren't allowed to come, Kolski sent an email saying that, per the FOM, it was illegal to publicly appear in uniform without company authorization.

I don't doubt he threatened discipline proceedings against everyone who showed up in uniform without written authorization from the company per the FOM.

One of the pilots who went to the shareholder's meeting (not in uniform) said the company hired goons to man the doors and make sure no one in uniform got in. Now THAT, if true, would have made for GREAT press.

A pilot jumpseats in for the meeting, in uniform to avoid security issues, goes straight to the meeting, then is refused entrance even though he/she is a shareholder. Would love to have that on the news, "airTran violates SEC provisions for open shareholder meetings by specifically excluding shareholder pilots".

 

[rtmcfi]

It is. Kolski didn't tell the NPA they weren't allowed to come, Kolski sent an email saying that, per the FOM, it was illegal to publicly appear in uniform without company authorization.

quote]

Seems like most of the Airtran Pilots should have uniforms from previous jobs. I can't see any problem with a previous employers uniform.

 

[Fubijaakr]

Ready for a real union yet?

DING, DING, DING!

We have a winner.

 

[Fubijaakr]

What would ALPA do differently PCL?

Watch the video from the lead story at www.alpa.org
. That's what Alaska ALPA did at their shareholders meeting.

 

[Fubijaakr]

Ask all of us TWA'ers what great representation we got from the "real union"

What you meant to say is the "great representation we got from our MEC."

Quite a bit of difference there, chum. It never ceases to amaze me how many pilots tend to blame National for the sins of their local reps.

Tsk. Tsk.

 

[Colonel Savage]

...86+ seaters are still very profitable and give them the added whipsaw advantage. There's a reason that they wanted that 86-seat scope giveaway.

OK, but have a coupla questions:

1) Which makes more money, a full 86 seater or a full 717?

2) I know it's one of your cities, but why did they have the shareholders meeting in CHS?