Pilots Turn Down 30% Increase over Five Years And A $3,000 Signing Bonus Per Pilot At

[BoilerUP]

Spirit's pay on the A319 (evidently the bulk of their fleet) is currently lower than VIRGIN AMERICA.

Lower than USA 3000.

Lower than AirTran.

WAY lower than Frontier, Airways (East) United *and* Allegiant.

And they PALE in comparison to JBLU Airbus pay...and even E190 pay!

 

[A-V-8]

So does anyone know what the union is proposing? How far apart are they?

 

[Fedora]

r1

I know some of the Spirit pilots - they are all good folks out to do what they love and earn a living. I believe that they were promised a lot when the airline started to expand, and morale was high. Obviously things did not turn out as planned. Before we all start double guessing their decision, remember that we do not know all of the facts as they do. There are always the yeas and nays in the vote, but for the majority to take this action it must have been pretty grim. We won't get any real info as long as they are in negotiations - other than what led them to this perhaps.
I believe that they are not trying to "bring the company to it's knees," but just trying to get a fair shake and similar treatment to that of the other LCC pilots.
Please honor their lines by not crossing them - and hope that this one comes out OK.

 

[JetMonkey]

So does anyone know what the union is proposing? How far apart are they?

Parity.

 

[kwick]

The contract needs to be retro-
active to the ammendable date to
be fair.

The $3000 signing bonus
in lieu of retroactive pay is a
complete joke!

The signing bonus should be
closer to $90k, or make the
contract retroactive.

Spirit has some "Young-Gun"
Georgia Attorney that should have
settled this thing two years ago.

Now they just have to "Man-Up"
and pay the market rate.

 

[Dizel8]

If you trail inflation for years on end, then just making up for inflation isn't actually a payraise!

jetblue did the exact same thing, I now make, adjusted for inflation, what I did 5 or 6 years ago. In order for it to work, you have to end up ahead of inflation once in a blue moon or get a COLA raise every year that offsets inflation.

 

[B727FA]

I'm making $.67 more an hour in real pay now than I was making in '97. Sick...I know. Lead the way, Spirit pilots! Draw, and HOLD the Line! We're behind you!

(BTW--I've been other places and ridden the ride up and down and this is where the Industry has landed me. I'm not bitching, just saying what we were doing 10-15 years ago is exactly where we are again. It has to STOP! No more subsidizing low ticket costs (and MGT pockets!) with our pay!)

Proud UNION airline crew!

 

[Lear70]

I'm pretty sure if I get a 30% raise, from that point on, I am getting 30% more money, but maybe thats just me...

It's not a 30% raise up front.

It's a 30% raise spread out over 5 years. That's 6% per year, BUT,,, that's not in a pure hourly rate. Spirit management is incorporate all the other pieces of the puzzle that ADD UP to 6%.

So if you look at it from the perspective of a Spirit pilot that hasn't had a Cost of Living raise in 4 years, and you add the 6% per year to their current rate, they still lose .5% (half a percent) of their income per year from increased cost of living.

At the end of 4 more years (2014), they're making 4% LESS than they were making back in 2006 when compared to actual spending power of that money.

Until there's a net GAIN of *SOME* sort, I don't blame them for turning it down... YMMV

 

[realmanofgenius]

would baldanza play the BK ch11 card in anyone's opinion as the nuclear option...to buy time and maybe hire a new cadre? is that conceivable? for a guy that wanted to charge for carry ons...it's in the sphere of where he operates...

 

[lostplnetairman]

Spirit is financed by investors Oaktree and Indigo. It's not Baldanza's sole call. If the investors want to write off the hundreds of millions they invested and invest in new millions of legal fees to unwind, sobeit. They would be bigger fools than anyone could imagine.

 

[realmanofgenius]

i wonder what the rules of ch11 are? there is no commandment stock has to be erased....or the new stock would go to indigo and oaktree at such level so as to replace or make them whole.....if the airline continues, it would have been cheaper to have just doubled the offer of 70 to 140 mil? right? what will it cost to using the current offer's math of 70 mil to make you guys whole or happy? trying to understand dollars and cents...are you close at all?

 

[OPECJet]

Fat man on Youtube alert!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSs-QXVKpIQ&feature=related

(Come to think of it, there's no way this blob is a man.)

 

[CX880]

Spirit will be out of business soon. Who's going to take over their flying? Airtran or Jetblue?

 

[rumorhasit]

What does the companies balance sheet look like? I mean has it made any money, is there growth in the $9 a flight but pay $50 bucks for a carryon bag?

 

[DieselDragRacer]

Is there any reason why the leasing company wouldn't be willing to put say the next 2 or 3 months of lease payments on the back end of Spirit's leases considering the circumstances? They do it all the time nowadays with mortgages and car loans and I'm sure the leasing company would rather extend the leases vs. repo'ing planes at a major loss.

Has any other airline done this in a strike situation in the past?