This is from a senior (pro-company, pro-senior pilot exclusively) 9E pilot. He is responding to a question that asks what the old LOA was about. I have listened to this blowhard for the last several years, and don't believe a word he says. Just wondering if any MSA pilots from 94 or earlier want to refute his characterizations. Enjoy.
quote:
In 1994 NW put out a RFP for 70 seat jets to replace the DC9-10's. Mesaba pilots agreed to the cheapest 70 rates any one had ever seen at the time. NW wanted to split the 36 AVRO's between us and Mesaba. Express management and pilots said Mesaba could have all of them at that price.
In the spring of '96 Express I signed a five year labor Agreement.
In '97 NW bought Express and announced they were going to give our MSP hub and AC to Mesaba. This was in the middle of one of the biggest hiring waves in a decade. Mesaba could not hire, train or staff the AC we gave them. Mesaba management wanted our CA's to come with the AC, as new hires. Under their scope terms Mesaba pilots could not stop them. The four party LOA that resulted sent 30 Express CA's to Mesaba and about 80 FO's to Mesaba. The CA's that were typed went with half their seniority and longevety. The CA's that were not typed kept one third of their longevity. It was the Mesaba pilots that insisted on what is known here as '21-G', the paragraph that established reciprocal rights for Mesaba pilots.
Express Management (Trenary) had made the commitment not to furlough through this entire ordeal. They could not have any way. In the spring of '98 one third of our CA's left for the majors in a two month period. Another third of our pilots were in extended training events transitioning from the J-31. All vacations were cancelled for most of '98 and everyone was flying 90+ hours a month. Four months in a row we started the month with no reserves. Even if Mesaba management had not taken our pilots there would have been no furloughs. We would have had our vacations and normal lines. Express management went way out of their way to help our MSP pilots secure better terms at Mesaba than they would have secured on their own. The rest of our pilot group sucked it up a bunch to get them there. It was our management that provided the leverage to secure the LOA. Other wise Mesaba would have parked more AC than they did.
In the fall of '98 Mesaba pilots agreed to pay concessions to secure a one hundred AC order for SF3's. They undercut our '96 Agreement.
In the spring of '99 we negotiated our current Agreement. We were not in 'section 6' and were under little pressure to sign an Agreement. We had one with two years left and the majors were hiring over a thousand pilots that year. As a result of that Agreement our 50 seat pilots made more than Mesaba's 70 seat pilots until '04. Especially the FO's
In December of '99 the Mesaba Mec told their pilot group that Mesaba had bought Express and the merger would result in a 'staple' of the seniority list.
In '04 as NW started reducing Mesaba's SF3 fleet the Mesaba MEC attempted to use '21-G' to take PCL CA seats for Mesaba pilots. Without the weight of an 'equipment transfer' the attempt failed before the Executive Board.
There are 300 Mesaba pilots with a hire date prior to 2000. Sometimes people use a lot of rhetoric to distort what they have done in the past.
quote:
In 1994 NW put out a RFP for 70 seat jets to replace the DC9-10's. Mesaba pilots agreed to the cheapest 70 rates any one had ever seen at the time. NW wanted to split the 36 AVRO's between us and Mesaba. Express management and pilots said Mesaba could have all of them at that price.
In the spring of '96 Express I signed a five year labor Agreement.
In '97 NW bought Express and announced they were going to give our MSP hub and AC to Mesaba. This was in the middle of one of the biggest hiring waves in a decade. Mesaba could not hire, train or staff the AC we gave them. Mesaba management wanted our CA's to come with the AC, as new hires. Under their scope terms Mesaba pilots could not stop them. The four party LOA that resulted sent 30 Express CA's to Mesaba and about 80 FO's to Mesaba. The CA's that were typed went with half their seniority and longevety. The CA's that were not typed kept one third of their longevity. It was the Mesaba pilots that insisted on what is known here as '21-G', the paragraph that established reciprocal rights for Mesaba pilots.
Express Management (Trenary) had made the commitment not to furlough through this entire ordeal. They could not have any way. In the spring of '98 one third of our CA's left for the majors in a two month period. Another third of our pilots were in extended training events transitioning from the J-31. All vacations were cancelled for most of '98 and everyone was flying 90+ hours a month. Four months in a row we started the month with no reserves. Even if Mesaba management had not taken our pilots there would have been no furloughs. We would have had our vacations and normal lines. Express management went way out of their way to help our MSP pilots secure better terms at Mesaba than they would have secured on their own. The rest of our pilot group sucked it up a bunch to get them there. It was our management that provided the leverage to secure the LOA. Other wise Mesaba would have parked more AC than they did.
In the fall of '98 Mesaba pilots agreed to pay concessions to secure a one hundred AC order for SF3's. They undercut our '96 Agreement.
In the spring of '99 we negotiated our current Agreement. We were not in 'section 6' and were under little pressure to sign an Agreement. We had one with two years left and the majors were hiring over a thousand pilots that year. As a result of that Agreement our 50 seat pilots made more than Mesaba's 70 seat pilots until '04. Especially the FO's
In December of '99 the Mesaba Mec told their pilot group that Mesaba had bought Express and the merger would result in a 'staple' of the seniority list.
In '04 as NW started reducing Mesaba's SF3 fleet the Mesaba MEC attempted to use '21-G' to take PCL CA seats for Mesaba pilots. Without the weight of an 'equipment transfer' the attempt failed before the Executive Board.
There are 300 Mesaba pilots with a hire date prior to 2000. Sometimes people use a lot of rhetoric to distort what they have done in the past.
