bvt1151 said:
The concessions stink, but the blended rates are the only real slap in the face. 90-seat aircraft for $90 an hour MAX? Thats even worse than Mesa and Chautauqua. What other regional airline has proven pilots are willing to work for one rate? Only Skywest. I'm not saying they were malicious in voting it in, I just think it illustrates how a single pilot groups "innocent" decision affects the whole regional industry.
Skywest did screw up. It is not the fact that they agreed to a common rate for different aircraft per se, it is how they went about doing it. What Skywest agreed to is not a true "blended rate". If it were a blended rate, they would have taken the higher 70-seat rate and the lower 50-seat rate and developed a single rate somewhere in between. That's a true blended rate.
What they did was
lower the 70-seat rate to the 50 seat rate and on top of that, they then extended it up to 99-seats. That's a major concession, not a "blended rate". They did that based on a "promise" of a new contract with UAL (which the company already had in the bag) and another "promise" to raise the rate in 18 months. In other words the company played them for suckers all the way and they bought it. Chalk it up to lack of experience.
Regardless, that's history. However, it is not the real cause of the current Comair (and other) problems.
The true cause is the rates accepted by USAirways and subsequently followed by JetBlue.
USAir pilots gave up their longevity and agreed to fly the EMB-170 for 1st yr pay of $58 (so they could get MDA). In the process they screwed themselves and everyone else. Shortly thereafter JBlue ordered the E-190 and offered a very similar rate for a larger aircraft, i.e., $71-89.
Since then, the AWA pilots have pretty much agreed to the JB rates, even though they have no such airplanes on order (and probably never will). Delta has proposed JB rate equivalents for the E-190 at mainline (which they have not ordered and probably never will).
These
mainline rates and proposals
are the real source of pressure on the Comair (and other regionals) pay system. While other DCI carriers may now have higher rates than those proposed at CMR, if those pilots think they will stay there they just aren't thinking. The contract rate they get from their "mainline" will force them to lower their payroll as well. It is only a matter of time. It will not be limited to DCI either. The other regionals can expect the same outcome down the road. It's not a question of IF, it's only a question of when.
With the exception of JB, the ALPA mainline carriers have done this in an effort to keep the regionals from operating the 70-seat equipment. They have failed. The AWA pilots seem to think they "won the day" by preventing their company from operating the E-190 at a regional feeder. They copied the JB rates, which the U pilots triggered, and have announced victory. That's baloney. There is no guarantee that their company will ever buy even 1 EMB-190 (just like there is no guarantee in the DL proposal) and meanwhile they have agreed to increase the "regional" jets (up to 90-seats) for a total of 93 at their "express" carriers. DL proposes 200 @ 79-seats. With those airplanes at the regionals, who needs and E-190 at the mainline? Nobody.
However, out of all that comes the pressure on Comair and everyone else to lower their 70-seat and 50-seat rates even further. A stupid move on the part of the union at USAirways has mushroomed into the JB follow up and the debacle that faces everyone else (including DL and NWA). It has not saved even one job at any mainline carrier. What it
has done is play right into management's hand and triggered a bidding war for the flying. There's nothing we (at CMR) can do to change that now, it's too late. If however you want to know who to blame, the answer is the mainline carriers and their ALPA policies, not Skywest. Skywest people were just played for suckers. The mainline people knew what they were doing and they did it anyway, deliberately. Now they have to eat it, but unfortunately so do we.
Management will continue to low ball us as long as we let them and it looks like everyone is willing to let them. I'm sure you know that NWA just capitulated. DL is now the only hold out. How long do you think that will last? Do you think the DL pilots are really going to "strike" and put DL into Chapter 7? Yeah, sure; just like the NW pilots and the U pilots and the UAL pilots. Don't hold your breath.
An interesting part of the Comair proposal is the change in perdiem. Apparently DL, which offered its own pilots $1.85/hr (compared to JetBlue's $2.00) thinks that Comair pilots don't eat as much as DL pilots and has offered us $1.46. Obviously they feel that "poor people" naturally eat less than rich people. That's how those SOB's think.
More important than the actual numbers that DAL has proposed to shaft Comair pilots with, is the fact that
it offers absolutely nothing in return. But it has given a "clue" at its true intent. They want to get rid of the "no furlough clause". Considering that it only applies to 1/2 of our pilots anyway, does that mean they expect to make us more than 50% smaller in the near term? Looks that way to me.
If Comair pilots decide to give Delta everything that it wants, there is absolutely no guarantee that Delta will not phase out Comair completely just as soon as it can. In the meantime, they are asking us to pay them $20 millions a year while they prepare to bury us. It's like taking a pay cut to pay for your own funeral. Once you're dead, who cares who pays the funeral expenses?
Obviously Delta management is seeking total war with Comair pilots. Either they believe it will frighten us into rolling over and begging them to scratch our bellies, or they just don't give a dam. I think it's the latter. They know they want rid of us and they've already written us off. If they can get a few more dollars while they put the plan into effect, why not?
If you're going to be killed anyway perhaps there is merit to considering taking as big a piece from the enemy as possible before your inevitable execution. What do we have to lose? Paying them while they torture us slowly will cost us $100 million dollars over 5 years to pay for our own demise. Maybe it's just as good an idea to cost them $700 million in 90 days for the murder they're about to commit?
Think about it.
