I want to start this by letting you know that I truly appreciate and welcome your support. Thank you.
As Flap Operator alluded too, there is little chance we are going to change each others minds, and we are probably going to have to agree to disagree, but I do have a response to your post...
Yet when XJ posted their capacity statistics for May they had a 3.1% INCREASE in ASM's year over year. Where is this shrinking you are talking about???? 9E has also closed domiciles, displaced senior captains out of their chosen domicile, and displaced captains to fo's all in the same timeframe that XJ pilots have had to endure.
Want the real numbers, the facts? Lets turn to the latest 10-K filing from Mesaba Holdings and operations numbers from Mesaba Airlines...
(in thousands)
Fiscal year ASMs
2001 2,948,239
2002 2,739,946
2003 2,822,140
So there you have it, the FACTS, as of the end of march 2003, the end of our fiscal year, we were still operating more than 5% below our 2001 numbers, and in 2002 when we had pilots on furlough we were more than 7% below those numbers. The monthly reports show a positve trend, but not the whole picture, unless you go far enough back. And in the future it is less than certain that our numbers will go up, as we return A model Saabs, that will not be replaced by CRJs in the near future. That is the shrinking I was talking about.
For fun lets look at what has happened at 9E since NOV 2001 (while the rest of us were 'suffering the effects of sept 11' as management loves to say....
Percent increase year-over-year in ASMs (the compound effect is very impressive){this is data is taken from
www.nwairlink.com}
2001
Nov 47.8
Dec 64.4
2002
Jan 61.7
Feb 77.3
Mar not found
Apr 61.7
May 46.2
Jun 37.9
Jul 34.7
Aug 35.5
Sep not found
Oct 47.2
Nov 47.9
Dec 35.1
2003
Jan not found
Feb not found
Mar 38.1
Apr not found
May 64.0
With out spending time as a net detective and trying to find the missing numbers the point is still pretty clear. The decrease in size of the numbers in late 2002 accounts for the saab flying, what a shame, only 34.7% percent growth.
ASM's directly relate to the amount of work that is needed to be done by your pilot group. Your ASM's have been stable for the past three years. I never said you are growing but you certainly aren't shrinking.
Actually your post directly insinuated growth (the whoping 3%), you even placed the word increase in bold type, but in reality the ASM numbers (the facts) do show that we shrunk, and that we are still not at our pre-Sep 2001 levels. While 9E has continued to grow at exceptional rates. Sounds like a net change in pilot positions to me.
If you think brotherhood means rolling over and offering a seniority grab or captains seats over your unfortunate situation that nowhere near resembles what went down in '97 you are crazy
No offense, but your whole post proves my point. We had sympathy for your unfortunate situation in '97 and offered help to our brothers, yet now you hide behind a defininition of the word 'transaction'. Seems to me the only transaction that took place in '97 between 9E and XJ was XJ's offer to take pilots with seniority, including into the left seat. The routes and airplanes were not yours to transact with us, the leases and routes are controlled by NWA, and they were reassigned to us by NWA.
And unless I missed it that word, transaction, isn't defind in the LOA at all. And the unwillingness to consider a broarder scope to the intentions of the LOA highlights the point I am driving toward. In my opinon you are behaving like management, hiding behind literal definitions and leagalese, missing the broader strokes of the language and its intentions, because it suits you to do so, and you are only looking out for yourselves, rather than lessoning the impact of NWA whipsaw.
And yeah, I guess doing what we did in '97 is a way to demonstrate botherhood, and your doing the same would have demonstrated yours. Only I would not call it a seniority grab as I doubt anyone whose job was secure here would have transferred, just the very junior and furloughed. I am sure there were folks here who thought us taking captains and FOs with seniority was crazy, luckily we did the right thing anyway.
I guess you prefer that your mother company continue to loose market share to other carriers serving CWA with RJ's
No, actually I would prefer that NWA have the flexibility to always assign the right aircraft to the market based on current conditions, without detrement to any pilot group. The only way to do that would be one list, but the whipsaw works too well for NWA and we won't ever see one list. So instead I would hope that in our red-tail brotherhood we find ways to minimize the wedges driven between us by NWA. We tried in '97.
And talk about insult, instead of LOA 21, you offer 'preferential hiring' where anyone who wanted to could come over and start over, gee thanks, I guess. Can you blame anyone for that, really? What would you have done, given up your time at XJ for 9E where the pay might have been a little better (well maybe not since you would have had to start over), but the work rules still do not compare, or look to another carrier like ARW, CMR or someone else with a better contract and (at the time) a still promising future? Oh, and those MECs, who we are not so closely associated with and who do not work for the same unkind folks in Eagan as we all do set up preferential interviews/hiring for our pilots as well.
As far as base closings at 9E go, yeah, I guess that is what happens when NWA buys the company, installs new management and those new leaders decide to end out-station basing. Bases close. And the bases that closed in the North, due to the transfer of flying, those folks were forced out, but they were also given the chance to come to XJ with seniority.
Your MEC has let this issue idle because it is a dead end road
It is only a dead end because it takes two to tango and we have an unwilling dance partner. I am pretty sure we have a commitee to look into this LOA that is still active. Oh, and our MEC is kind of busy with negotiations, and management's continued disregard for our working agreement and the rlb negotiation process.
With the recall of all of our pilots and impending hiring, this issue will fade, and I would be surprised if anything ever comes of the LOA, ever. I do know however that I am not the only pilot at XJ that feels slighted by the actions of our bothers at 9E. Taking emotion out of the situation would be great, but it is unrealistic, and yeah, I believe in srtiving for the truth also, even to the point of doing a little research to find the truth.
Despite all this disagreement over LOA 21 I am greateful for the support you and others have offered. I look forward to sharing the picket lines with you. Hopefully just the informational, but if need be during the strike. Thank you. And i second what SF3Boy said, you will have my support when the tables are turned.
Good luck guys.
