Mesaba Furlough Announcement...

[79%N1]

The stuff that was posted was true based on the 900's we were told we would be recieving from DAL. But they quickly pulled the plug on that. This coupled with the Saab reduction is the reason for the furlough.
It goes to show that anything can happen. I was right at the time. But DAL changed their minds. The result: All the pilots we hired in preparation for the 15 900 deliveries are being layed off now. Our own management has no idea what DAL is doing. We are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

How, on Earth, was Mesaba going to hire 700 pilots over 2 years for 15 airframes - per your "prediction"???

Even at 10 pilots per plane, that equates to 150 pilots!

Were you planning an additional 55 planes of growth from somewhere?
Thats a LOT of growth in todays age....I think you were a bilt over zealous.

 

[Whataboutbob]

So are the staffing reductions going to come equally from each domicile (a few from MSP, MEM, DTW)?

Are most of the displaced Captains going to go fly in the right seat of the 900? I think a majority of them were Saab F.O's before upgrading. So mines will go through long term training and try to milk the captain pay as long as possible.

Does anyone know if you take a voluntary furlough if you can collect unemployment. I think this was an issue in MN when the Northwest flight attendants that took voluntary's were collecting during the bankruptcy??

 

[xjhawk]

So I was looking in the contract under where the furlough section is. Is this a realignment? Reduction? There have been talk about some of those senior Saab guys who were waiting to take a jet position til after the holidays then got stuck on the saab for them to have an opportunity to "bump" someone out of a jet position during the displacement. IS this possible? I guess it all matters on teh wording on the notice??????

 

[Whataboutbob]

So I was looking in the contract under where the furlough section is. Is this a realignment? Reduction? There have been talk about some of those senior Saab guys who were waiting to take a jet position til after the holidays then got stuck on the saab for them to have an opportunity to "bump" someone out of a jet position during the displacement. IS this possible? I guess it all matters on teh wording on the notice??????

I'm just guessing here but if they cut each Saab Domicile down equally then I don't think there would be any CRJ captains that would get bumped from the left seat of the jet. I think how it works is if you are displaced you can go to any seat your seniority can hold. So in this example it would be all the junior Saab Captains getting displaced and they wouldn't have the seniority system wide to bump a CRJ Captain.

Now the second scenerio would be lets say they totally cut DTW Saab staffing down to almost nothing. I'm not sure how senior some of the Saab Captains in DTW are system wide but some of them might be able to bump CRJ captains from there seat and cause a domino effect. Anyone feel free to correct me if this is totally from right field.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

No Bob you pretty much hit it. IF it's just a few from each base (assuming no realigning of the CRJ/CR9 captains) then the senior Saab captains will not be displaced and therefor can't force a junior to them jet captain out. (the should have bid it when you had the chance deal) IF the rumors of DTW closing as a Saab base ARE true then yes many of those senior Saab captains will now be involuntarily displaced from thier position (even if many would have gone voluntarily) and can go to anywhere in the company thier seniority can hold including (and likely) DTW 900 captain at the expense of the junior captains. This would be a worst case scenario for creating displacements and training events.

 

[xjhawk]

thanks, thats the way i saw it too but was told otherwise by someone who has been here way longer than me. what he was saying that if they displace 10 in msp, the top ten could chose to go to 900 cpt msp. I thought the opposite, that the ten Jr would be displaced. the way the contract reads it depends on how the furlough notice is worded.

we shall wait and see what the notice says. closing a saab base would cost them a lot of cash!

 

[XJohXJ]

If it's a reduction, only the junior guys get bumped out (inverse seniority order). The senior guys can't bid out, 'cause it's not a vacancy. (There are no vacant jet CA spots). This isn't a "bid where you want to go deal". This is a "we're cutting the bottom spots, see where your seniority lets you end up" deal.

There's a reason why the advice at Mesaba is always: If you want to take a vacancy, take it as soon as you get a chance to, 'cause you never know when the music's going to stop.

 

[xjhawk]

Yeah this place is like a bad game of musical chairs. But in our case you never know when half the chairs will disappear!

 

[Whataboutbob]

I think since we are already overstaffed on the First Officer side on both the Jet (not 100% sure about the jet) and the Saab (obviously) that they will be able to furlough right away and not necessarly have to wait for displaced Saab Captains to be trained on the right seat of the jet. Was it the voluntarys go in August? So is this going to be a quick process or will the last furlough go with the last Saab?

I just wanted to say that I hope those that are effected are able to find greener pastures right away. Its sucks! but just remember that Mesaba is not always worth waiting around for. What I'm saying is that this will turn out to be a blessing for some of the furloughed.

 

[Raskal]

...I just wanted to say that I hope those that are effected are able to find greener pastures right away. Its sucks! but just remember that Mesaba is not always worth waiting around for. What I'm saying is that this will turn out to be a blessing for some of the furloughed.

No kidding, what percentage of the recalls came back the last time?

 

[whaleroast]

No kidding, what percentage of the recalls came back the last time?

I think it was something like 80 out of 225.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

I think it was something like 80 out of 225.

Yea if I remember right it was around that mark. Though most that did come back were from the group that had been cut later in the process and were only gone from either August or October of 06 (I forget which) to April 07. Most that went out in January or February of 06 didn't come back. But then again there were plenty of other places to go in early 06 too.

 

[livin'thesim]

Isn't this the third or fourth 'false start' for Mesaba growth?

I have a couple friends there, I'm guessing everyone there is getting tired of this crap.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

Isn't this the third or fourth 'false start' for Mesaba growth?

I have a couple friends there, I'm guessing everyone there is getting tired of this crap.

It's been so common, most guys have just gotten used to this being the way things are.....

 

[samballs]

We (OH) had pilots leaving for Mesaba while Mesaba was hiring, and they all would brag about how quick they were going to upgrade (should not listen to seven). I always thought why would you leave OH south and go to OH north, they were the same airline even before DL,NW merger. BOTH SUCK

 

[xjhawk]

yeah for like a couple months we had a good upgrade time. It went from like 7-8 years to upgrade to like nothing. Looks like we are back to normal. Heck I have been on reserve for about 6 years, looks like a few more years for me. Maybe there should be a letter of agreement for the max number of times a pilot can do ready reserve. 10 a month is getting pretty old.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

yeah for like a couple months we had a good upgrade time. It went from like 7-8 years to upgrade to like nothing. Looks like we are back to normal. Heck I have been on reserve for about 6 years, looks like a few more years for me. Maybe there should be a letter of agreement for the max number of times a pilot can do ready reserve. 10 a month is getting pretty old.

I've spent all but 4 months on reserve here myself. I understand the pain...
The way things are though you might not have to much longer though it will require a trip back to the right seat. As for the ready reserve... that's something that indeed will have to be looked at in the new contract.

 

[Flybet3]

yeah for like a couple months we had a good upgrade time. It went from like 7-8 years to upgrade to like nothing. Looks like we are back to normal. Heck I have been on reserve for about 6 years, looks like a few more years for me. Maybe there should be a letter of agreement for the max number of times a pilot can do ready reserve. 10 a month is getting pretty old.

You could get what American Eagle has and get ready reserve for the whole month with 11 days off. Or join me in the charter world and be on call 24/7, it's like ready reserve all day, week, month, year long. LOL. I'll take this 10 day a month crap anytime. None the less though!!! RESERVE SUUUUUCKS!

 

[WMUSIGPI]

I did air ambulance for a while and even that wasn't quite as bad as ready reserve is. Close but not quite. Now add in other aspects of that job and company and well it was an easy choice to jump ship just before it sank.

I'll take the ready before a displacement back to fo but we really do need to look at adjusting it some at the next opportunity (if not dump it all together).

 

[afpilotselect]

The last airline I was at had Ready Reserve lines. From my understanding a large majority of regional airlines have this. Having 10 days of Ready Reserve is not nearly as bad as a whole month of it. It could be a whole lot worse!