Letter to B.T. FLOPS

[anonypilot]

A letter to Bob T.,

STOP IT!!. Stop embarrassing yourself by sending out those pathetic emails.
You are a foolish man. You and your cronies are trying to stop an ocean liner (IBT) with a canoe (FOPA). It's just so laughable and one might think that you thought higher of yourself as a person. We all know those "Q&A" emails you are sending are made up. The stupidity of the questions are insulting the pilot work force. What is even more ridiculous are the answers. You're a joke Bob T.

Year after year, month after month we keep receiving emails saying how
well our sales forecasts are doing. How great our owners think we are.
How dispatch reliability is going up, mx costs are going down. How do you repay us?

By shi**ing on us with a $100 per paycheck raise. Every person at "FLOPS" in management is stealing from us. You are stealing food from the mouths of our kids, causing us to stress over bills, work on ungodly hours during the day & week. Again, how do you repay us?

By giving us "Ada Boys". You steal from our quality of life everyday. You rob us of our hotel points. We hold the brunt of packing 8 days of clothes into one carry-on and sleeping in hundreds of hotel rooms a year. Risking germs, being sick, getting sick and making our families sick.

We endure smelly taxi cabs filled with smoke. We travel on packed airplanes, stand in long lines at ticket counters, are on the receiving end of exhaustive searches at airport security. We suffer through chilled carb filled breakfast's. Then at the end of the day again we wolf down our cold dinner that was meant to be re-heated. We eat it only because we're starved from doing quick turns. Our weight fluctuates up and down because your schedulers are forcing an unhealthy work day schedule onto us.

If you had a child that needed operating on, would you feel comfortable knowing your doctor got barely 10 hrs of rest, was up all day and your kid was going to be the 5th child under the knife? But don't worry Bob T, he's legal. We listen to frustrated owners when they learn of the real performance of the aircraft from the pilot after your saleteam just sold snow to an Eskimo.

We stand there and watch an owner tip the line guy $20 for moving his bag 5 feet when we just finished hauling it across country, around thunderstorms, through heavy rain, just because the company actively tells them to not tip us. We've had to uproot our families because of your tier system. We drive for hours now to get home, even if there is an airport near our home but not in the tier system.

We took it when the travel money, after years of being paid, was then taxed. Did we see a raise in our travel allowance or salary to compensate? NO. We saw it further taken away in the form of the travel allowance being rolled into our salary. In essence a paycut. We have had weeks of vacation denied us without being paid back to us.

We are not gonna take it anymore. So now instead of taking from us, we are now going to take from you and get what we deserve. Get ready and get packed you scab.

GO 1108!!

-anonypilot

 

[gray eagle]

ANONYPILOT, Venting is OK, but you are crying like a baby. Stop it and get your contract! Everybody knows what you folks at FLOPS are putting up with.

 

[CheeseDick]

$100 per paycheck?

That's $2600/year

That's probably not a bad raise for the lower seniority guys

 

[anonypilot]

You two must be in your twenties and sky whores that will fly for peanuts.
It's that attitude that brings about such poor pay and conditions in the corp world. Does us favor and remain cfi's
-----------------------------------------------------

The below Reply was posted at Flightinfo in reply to the same post. Take notes on what needs to be done when managment beats you down year after year.

ERJ135
Gets Weekends Off
CFI
221 posts since Oct 2005

-Sounds like your going to have to do what they did at NJ. I have a friend who is a CJX capt and when they got their new contract it coinceded with his yearly pay raise plus he got something else to raise his pay. He ended up getting a 60% pay raise. He went picketing at the World Poker Tours in Vegas where a a lot of their customers were present. They let the customers know what their pay was and work rules. He said they were so disgusted that they called management and threatened to take their business elsewhere and after that they got their new contract. One owner told him that they did not want unhappy pilots flying their airplanes. Too bad we couldn't get the rest of the public to feel like that.

Good Luck and I would hit the picket lines.

Chris
--------------

 

[Guitar Guy]

$100 per paycheck?

That's $2600/year

That's probably not a bad raise for the lower seniority guys

Ask the FLOPS guys and gals if they think $2600 is "not a bad raise". I think the union representation vote tally in the near future might also give you another answer.

And check out the payscales for NetJets and Citation Shares if you think $2600 is a decent raise for the FLOPS pilots, regardless of their seniority.

 

[jetwash]

I think the $100 was per month that he mentioned and was the annual pay increase for captains ( FO was $75) which works out to about 1.9% a year. With the current cost of living increasing at 4.1% last year. They will take a pay cut in real terms of 2.2% per year.

What was strange is that Tyler stated that was our annual cost of living increase. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad

 

[CheeseDick]

Ask the FLOPS guys and gals if they think $2600 is "not a bad raise". I think the union representation vote tally in the near future might also give you another answer.

And check out the payscales for NetJets and Citation Shares if you think $2600 is a decent raise for the FLOPS pilots, regardless of their seniority.

First of all, they knew the payscale when the accepted the job.

And a $2600 raise, regardless of negotiations in the future, is still better than no raise at all.

At least they can live a bit easier while working through the negotiation process.

 

[realityman]

Try again Cheese. If the "raise" doesn't even come close to keeping up with the yearly increase in the CPI (which I believe usually runs close to 5%), then those guys (and gals) will slowly but surely be living harder every year.
No economics degree here. Just common sense.

Interestingly, NJA tried offering an insulting pay raise in the failed TA. Not only did it fail to pass, but was a hard enough slap in the face to galvanize the majority of the group to finally put some real pressure on the company to come up with a good contract. Now we see FLOPS management doing the same thing. Sheesh! Apparently, to be high up in a company's management team you have to live by the motto "Live and don't learn."

 

[realityman]

Oh yeah, if we all lived by "they knew the payscale when they accepted the job", then I guess everyone in the country (except management) would still be making $.05/hour.

Don't you think it's kind of naive to assume that working for crummy pay in lousy working conditions in order to get that future cushy job is just how it goes? Okay Cheese, what's your theory on how the few good jobs out there came to be. Through the generosity of management? Or through people who took the job knowing the payscale, but also knowing they could work with the other employees to make it a better job?

Having just recently been through the latter, I'll go with that theory. And given how I was treated by management at the other places I worked that didn't have a union, I'll continue to stand by theory #2.

 

[On Your Six]

I feel sorry for the FLOPS pilots who have endured enough disrespect. FLOPS is now the least respected and least desirable of the Fracs as a place of employment. I believe management is looking to weed out pilots who expect better with "planned" attrition.

Time to bring the union in to set things straight. True, unions aren't always the answer, but NJA pilots are doing a lot better as a result of collective bargaining - it certainly couldn't hurt the FLOPS pilots at this point...

 

[FlyFlyFly]

Man, things at FLOPS must really suck. I was offered a job like that once...

I said stick it, I can do better.

You must have been the guy that took the job.

Maybe the union will help you make better decisions in the future...

 

[sdmund]

Nobody made a bad decision coming here. This WAS a great place to work. There was a future and the company was always growing and getting better. I remember walking into the HR office and seeing hundreds and hundreds of resume's literaly stacked up in piles from guys wanting to come here.

The problem is that management has done nothing but cut and take from the pilots to cover for their bad judgement and greed. That's why people are pissed. They have been consistently lied to and now they are standing up and saying no more.

After 1108 gets voted in and we get a good contract, this will again be a place that hundreds and hundreds of guys want to come work for. This is one pilot group who has decided not to sit idly by, but to take part in making their company a great place to work, and their part of the industry a great place to be. You should not be so quick to judge them and say they made a bad decision.

It's because of pilots like us that there are good jobs out there. I swear our biggest enemies as pilots are pilots. If we all stood together and demanded decent wages and working conditions then companies could not get away with what they do. But unfortunately selfishnish and greed abound in our side of the industry too.

 

[Guitar Guy]

First of all, they knew the payscale when the accepted the job.

So take a small "raise" that won't keep pace with inflation and be happy with it? Or should they take that small raise and resign themselves to well-below industry-average salaries for the rest of their careers? After all, they knew the payscale when they accepted the job.

And a $2600 raise, regardless of negotiations in the future, is still better than no raise at all.

At least they can live a bit easier while working through the negotiation process.

Why do you think the company is offering a $2600 raise? Because FLOPS management is trying to stave off a union coming on property. Do you think that if FLOPS pilots do not vote for the union that management will come back with a nice, big raise on top of the latest "raise"? Where is the impetus for management to negotiate? And why wouldn't the FLOPS pilots want salaries similar to pilots doing similar work at NetJets and Citation Shares?

 

[bchjetdrvr]

Simple Math guys

I don't know how you guys came up with that $2600 a year stuff.

Original message:

<<By shi**ing on us with a $100 per paycheck raise.>>

Yeah umm... let's seee

$100 x twice a month x 12 = what!?

Buller.....Buller....anybody.......$2400

 

[FlyFlyFly]

It's because of pilots like us that there are good jobs out there.

I have always just voted with my feet. I have had managers make promises and not deliver. When they did that, I took charge and left, if they were curious, I told them why, if not, they would eventually figure it out. I would rather not work for someone that I have to use force with to get what I want. If I have to go to that extreme, then I would rather be somewhere else. I guess unions are good for some people. I would rather control my own fortune than be subject to seniority, work rules, management animosity, etc.

 

[choppengruven]

I have always just voted with my feet. I have had managers make promises and not deliver. When they did that, I took charge and left, if they were curious, I told them why, if not, they would eventually figure it out. I would rather not work for someone that I have to use force with to get what I want. If I have to go to that extreme, then I would rather be somewhere else. I guess unions are good for some people. I would rather control my own fortune than be subject to seniority, work rules, management animosity, etc.

So what your saying is when the going gets tough you just bail? Please stay out of my foxhole in the future.

 

[Guitar Guy]

I would rather control my own fortune than be subject to seniority, work rules, management animosity, etc.

Are you self-employed? Have you ever done contract work?

 

[dime line]

""I have always just voted with my feet. I have had managers make promises and not deliver. When they did that, I took charge and left,""

And your departure is affecting who?

"""if they were curious, I told them why, if not, they would eventually figure it out."""

This is why were going to be union, because they haven't figured it out, and you still left. So your departure didn't affect anybody.

 

[joepilot111]

I have always just voted with my feet. I have had managers make promises and not deliver. When they did that, I took charge and left, if they were curious, I told them why, if not, they would eventually figure it out. I would rather not work for someone that I have to use force with to get what I want. If I have to go to that extreme, then I would rather be somewhere else. I guess unions are good for some people. I would rather control my own fortune than be subject to seniority, work rules, management animosity, etc.

We are controlling our own fortune. It starts with 50%+1 and only gets better from there. Thats what team players do...they do what it takes to make the team better. Then theres the guys that only think of themselves.....most of them left a long time ago.

 

[realityman]

I can sympathize with FlyFlyFly. I used to do the same thing. Problem was, it just led from one crap job to another. NJA wasn't awful when I came here, but it turns out that with only a moderate amount of effort on my part, combined with moderate input from almost all the other pilot, NJA became a really excellent place to work.

FlyFlyFly, this is not flamebait. Honestly curious. Have you checked back with any of the employers that you left? What I mean is, after you left (possibly followed by some of the other pilots at those places), did things improve? Looking back at my former employers that I voted with my feet with, not a single one has made any significant improvements for the pilots. they're still crap jobs.

It's really all supply and demand. There's a HUGE supply of pilots out there who are just waiting for those job openings. So if you simply walk away from the job, you've given someone else a job, but haven't improved the job. So what's the option? Constantly change jobs hoping for the golden cup? Or band together and work as a group to to improve the place you're at? Only my opinion, but it seems the second option is far more effective.