sabreliner
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Meeting with Skywest,Inc
- Thread starter jehtplane
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Plug said:
By the way the cookies aren't that great , they give me gas, and you are right, my spin is not correct because I am about 8 beers into a 12 pack. I apologize to all those that I may have offended because I jumped the gun on what I was told, however, I do not agree with the timing of the badgering,I think we should give this management some time to get their feet wet with how ASA is really run. I am cautiously optimistic about Skywest and I look forward to the future of ASA.
P.S. was the answer of "Ford and Harrison" really appropriate "sport"
Stifler's Mom
MILF...MILF...MILF
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ATR-DRIVR said:
LOL, and I was told I can not recognize a joke when I see one, I am just no longer gonna talk about this subject, I brought it up because I thought it deserved a thought,I absolutely do not agree with what was said today at the meeting from what came across as representing our whole pilot group. It is my opinion and my own. I know what happened, And if you notice there has been no response to the statement I said was poorly worded, noted by our CEO, to this person. I have not ,nor will not mention names, I just do not agree with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am absolutely in no way union bashing, I support ALPA 100%, but that does not mean I have to agree with everything they say!!!!!
~~~^~~~
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I was at Wednesday afternoon's meeting in the Awesome Service room. Jehtplane may have been at another meeting. However, our meeting went something like this:
Rampers asked about travel benefits. Mr. Atkin said he does not know, but he doubts they will be as good as Delta employees' benefits. For the next 90 days he believes that they will remain the same as they are now, but he is no expert on non-rev travel. Rampers then asked the same question one, or two, more times. The question was repeated later in the same meeting. I got the impression that the reason why anyone works the gate or ramp, as opposed to the opportunities at Wendy's is that free travel is a better perk than free french fries. Also, week old fries don't sell as well on EBay.
Pilots asked questions about transferring assets, aircraft orders and the future of the Salt Lake City base. Mr. Atkin's answers closely followed what he said earlier in his conference call with investors the day after the acquisition. No changes in the immediate future but a merger, or a non network LCC might be in the distant future depending on what else happens in the industry (which I took to mean if UAL or DAL goes away). This statement was no different than what Mr. Atkin had said before. It seems his current "vision" is to improve our service to Delta, as they assign us flying and to try our best to compete for all of Delta's business we can get.
The point was made several times that SkyWest was not going to play a whipsaw game with employee groups. Airplane allotment decisions would most hinge on where they made the most operational sense based on the customer's needs.
Other pilots did raise questions regarding the pace of negotiations and candidly I thought there was consensus with Jerry Atkin - that there was no reason why non economic issues should have been drug out for three years. Jerry Atkin had no idea of the "Employee Engagement Survey" results. One pilot knew that only 8% of the Flight Ops (Pilots, IP's, Managers) respondents said that they trusted management. Jerry Atkin seemed surprised that there was a 92% negative response to the survey.
The other embarrassing question dealt with the ongoing issue with ASAP reporting. ASA management wants to tie this in with other contractual negotiations when it is a mutually beneficial safety program. I got the feeling that Jerry Atkin is a straight shooter and he does not support trying to make pilots negotiate for something that benefits everyone equally. Jerry made a couple of jokes about how pilots never ask simple, short, questions - but I did not get the feeling that Jerry Atkin is too disturbed by the contract negotiation.
Jerry Atkin further said that he wanted management to be close to the employees and the customer (Delta) and he thought that could be better accomplished by the team in Atlanta than from SLC.
Overall I thought the tone was positive. Jerry Atkin is focused on performance and wants to see pay tied to performance. He would like performance bonuses which could add $250 or so a quarter to everyones' pay and other stock option type incentives for the line employees. This was a breath of fresh air to me because it might get employees working together instead of playing the blame game. For too long flight crews are blamed for every ill this company has. If money was tied to performance perhaps there would be some peer pressure to do a good job throughout the operation.
I hope our local representatives consider Jerry Atkin's ideas and not immediately dismiss performance incentives. Our airline now is compensated for our flying, but the real profit comes from hitting our performance targets and exceeding them. There is nothing wrong with seeking mutually beneficial solutions to our negotiating quagmire.
Mr. Atkin will certainly be a tough negotiator when it comes to economic issues. Just look at the deal he did with Delta, getting gate space in Atlanta and holding back nearly half the money to ensure Delta behaves in bankruptcy. I think Mr. Atkin is very intelligent and tends to look at numbers rather than getting caught up in the anti pilot hatred that oozes from every cubicle in the G.O. Mr. Atkin knows ALPA represents the ASA pilots, he knows he has to deal with it. It might not be what he wants, but he is a pragmatic negotiator and will do what makes sense for the bottom line. After all, by most accounts, SkyWest is well run.
Oh and the rampers then asked about travel benefits again.
Just my recall, others might have been at other meetings.
~~~^~~~
Rampers asked about travel benefits. Mr. Atkin said he does not know, but he doubts they will be as good as Delta employees' benefits. For the next 90 days he believes that they will remain the same as they are now, but he is no expert on non-rev travel. Rampers then asked the same question one, or two, more times. The question was repeated later in the same meeting. I got the impression that the reason why anyone works the gate or ramp, as opposed to the opportunities at Wendy's is that free travel is a better perk than free french fries. Also, week old fries don't sell as well on EBay.
Pilots asked questions about transferring assets, aircraft orders and the future of the Salt Lake City base. Mr. Atkin's answers closely followed what he said earlier in his conference call with investors the day after the acquisition. No changes in the immediate future but a merger, or a non network LCC might be in the distant future depending on what else happens in the industry (which I took to mean if UAL or DAL goes away). This statement was no different than what Mr. Atkin had said before. It seems his current "vision" is to improve our service to Delta, as they assign us flying and to try our best to compete for all of Delta's business we can get.
The point was made several times that SkyWest was not going to play a whipsaw game with employee groups. Airplane allotment decisions would most hinge on where they made the most operational sense based on the customer's needs.
Other pilots did raise questions regarding the pace of negotiations and candidly I thought there was consensus with Jerry Atkin - that there was no reason why non economic issues should have been drug out for three years. Jerry Atkin had no idea of the "Employee Engagement Survey" results. One pilot knew that only 8% of the Flight Ops (Pilots, IP's, Managers) respondents said that they trusted management. Jerry Atkin seemed surprised that there was a 92% negative response to the survey.
The other embarrassing question dealt with the ongoing issue with ASAP reporting. ASA management wants to tie this in with other contractual negotiations when it is a mutually beneficial safety program. I got the feeling that Jerry Atkin is a straight shooter and he does not support trying to make pilots negotiate for something that benefits everyone equally. Jerry made a couple of jokes about how pilots never ask simple, short, questions - but I did not get the feeling that Jerry Atkin is too disturbed by the contract negotiation.
Jerry Atkin further said that he wanted management to be close to the employees and the customer (Delta) and he thought that could be better accomplished by the team in Atlanta than from SLC.
Overall I thought the tone was positive. Jerry Atkin is focused on performance and wants to see pay tied to performance. He would like performance bonuses which could add $250 or so a quarter to everyones' pay and other stock option type incentives for the line employees. This was a breath of fresh air to me because it might get employees working together instead of playing the blame game. For too long flight crews are blamed for every ill this company has. If money was tied to performance perhaps there would be some peer pressure to do a good job throughout the operation.
I hope our local representatives consider Jerry Atkin's ideas and not immediately dismiss performance incentives. Our airline now is compensated for our flying, but the real profit comes from hitting our performance targets and exceeding them. There is nothing wrong with seeking mutually beneficial solutions to our negotiating quagmire.
Mr. Atkin will certainly be a tough negotiator when it comes to economic issues. Just look at the deal he did with Delta, getting gate space in Atlanta and holding back nearly half the money to ensure Delta behaves in bankruptcy. I think Mr. Atkin is very intelligent and tends to look at numbers rather than getting caught up in the anti pilot hatred that oozes from every cubicle in the G.O. Mr. Atkin knows ALPA represents the ASA pilots, he knows he has to deal with it. It might not be what he wants, but he is a pragmatic negotiator and will do what makes sense for the bottom line. After all, by most accounts, SkyWest is well run.
Oh and the rampers then asked about travel benefits again.
Just my recall, others might have been at other meetings.
~~~^~~~
~~~^~~~
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Plug said:
I think the ASA MEC is making an error by targeting Ford and Harrison. All Ford and Harrison are is a law firm with attorneys who represent their client. If Bill Heirs screws a pilot to the wall, it is because his client gave him the instruction and paid him to carry out the mission. If Ford and Harrison are obstructing progress, again it is their client that they are representing in doing so.
Corporate customers like ASA are the very best customers a firm like Ford and Harrison has. Ford and Harrison is perfectly willing to play the role of bad cop in the good cop, bad cop, game. Don't fall for the ruse.
Ford and Harrison is likely getting paid much more than ASA's MEC recieves in MCF money. In exchange they vigorously represent their client. The fact that pilots are targeting them, not the managers that give the marching orders, tells me that Ford and Harrison is wining - at least to the extent that pilots do not know who they are fighting.
I'm surprised the pilots and ALPA are not all up in arms about CSSC. After all the Company uses ASAP to report pilots to the FSDO generating all sorts of Certificate problems for flight crews while enjoying immunity for their self disclosure. This is bad enough, but the fact that CSSC just makes stuff up and ignores demonstrable facts in their effort to pin the tail on the pilot makes the process down right terrifying.
Everyone should know that the Company copies the FSDO on all flight ops related UOR's. The Company was very up front about that in recurrent. Everyone has also heard the horror stories about pilots doing things that no pilot in his or her right mind would do. Some of us know that many of these stories are grossly exaggerated, or just plain untrue. Now consider that the Company has a formal reporting system that grants them immunity and you don't, neither does ALPA. Govern yourself accordingly and fly safe out there.
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