SkyWest back to Coex

[Obi-Wan]

We are nervous that Commutair will get jets

From what I hear they do not have the resources to do so. I also hear that they are being sued by a group of their pilots for sealing their retirement money. if this settlement is large enough it might bankrupt the company or the pilots might own the company. Maybe then they can make the right choice.

 

[nimtz]

Re: Screw it...

Flame away, but NO Commutair person is getting my jumpseat unless you present a valid ALPA card. Period. If you have an ALPA card, then this post does not apply to you.

Sorry for you Express commuters this might affect. Thats the way it's going to be on my plane.

You Commutair guys and gals are just one small step above SCABS in my book. Actually, there are a few dictionary's out there that would say you ARE scabs. By taking our flying, you are doing Union work, for non Union wages and benefits. Thanks for doing your part to ensure the race to the bottom continues.

Yup... I'm an express crybaby. can I have another cup of waughhh?!

Dude, what stupid flamebait are you trying to throw out? Since your actual name appears on the crackpipe, you have to come here to spew anonomyous garbage. You need to take out your professional/sexual frustrations out on things besides the jumpseat.

You want to lecture a Commutair guy why there pilot group acted like a bunch of fr*cking morons for rejecting representation, go right ahead cause I'd be right beside you. But let the guy get to where he wants to go for crying out loud. 'Thats the way it's gotta be on my plane.' Grow up please, for the benefit of our entire pilot group.

 

[nimtz]

For a group of professional airline pilots you xjet guys sure do cry like a bunch of beotches. You guys whine so loud I swear I can hear you over the jet engine when you taxi past. I guess that's what happens when you hire kids to be airline pilots.

Yeah and Commutair wasn't hiring 900 hour wonders back in 2000 either, huh? They were all 30+ with numerous types and tons of turbine PIC, right? The majority of your pilot group sure showed overwhelming 'professionalism' when they decided they were best off putting all faith in management hands. You might think all this CLE growth is fabulous, but here's a reality check for you, CLE won't last five more years as a CAL hub. That will make it pretty pointless for Commutair to fly from MBS-CLE.

 

[Air Biscuit]

NEDude,

You are right our capacity purchase agreement with CAL expires in 07, but guess what, we have leverage on this contract to destroy Cal if it comes down to it if we have to close the doors. Their is strength in numbers. Don't you think that we may be able to persuade Cal to give us some kind of assurance in writing that no other vendor's will get any further flying in the future.

You also stated, "if it isn't your fault, then why is it o.k. for you to take their flying and not o.k. for us to take yours." "Or do you have the same mindset of I got mine so srew the rest of you?" Let me start by saying Cal had the chance back in contract 97 to secure one list and they let it slip away. That is why it really is their own fault. They run the MEC we don't. They hurt us all by letting things slip away from them. They had the leverage then we did not. We should have in my opinion voted down ta2 in contract 97 to eliminate the cost advantage for management to spin us us off and keep us separate. I was one of the 125 some odd pilots that did vote no on it. Alot of the mentality then was to take our retro checks and go to Cal because the economy was booming and things were moving fast. Look what happened, we're all still here at X-jet plus a few hundred more off the street flow backs flying a jet airliner for peanuts. I'm sure their are alot of pilots now that wish they could change back their vote. Their aren't to many guys who are willing to admit to voting yes on that POS. I didn't believe in leaving the guys behind me to work with Z-scale wages. So to answer your question no I do not have that mindset.

You also said that by being scabs that we should be welcome with open arms. After all doesn't CALALPA do that. This you have somewhat of a point on unfortanately. ALPA is a business like everything else and it seems sometimes like the lessor of two evils. They did forgive the scabs. Was it right. In my opinion no. Their actions destroyed many lives, however if being ALPA down the road helps the rest of us non scab scum at X-jet and Cal which it will then it will be worth it. First of all you guys are not scabs yet. But you should have voted in our union. I am not sure of the education from ALPA you received prior to the vote, but evidently it didn't do much convincing which is too bad. I think that the majority of you will eventually regret the decision.

 

[NEDude]

Don't you think that we may be able to persuade Cal to give us some kind of assurance in writing that no other vendor's will get any further flying in the future.

Ummm, no. You have some leverage right now. That leverage ends in a few years. If you do go so far as to get some assurance from CAL right now, in 2007 it means nothing. There will be several airlines lining up to take that flying. If the aircraft are available, and since CAL owns/leases all of your planes, they will be, it will not take too long for another carrier to pick it up. CAL management is not stupid, do you honestly believe that they would enter into an agreement that would tie their hands the way you seem to think you can? Again. any agreement you make will be with ExpressJet, not Continental. And you can bet the minute that the relationship between Continental and Expressjet does not benefit Continental, it will end. Also remember that the negotiating process is a give and take type of relationship. All we hear about is what you are going to take, what are you willing to give?

Let me start by saying Cal had the chance back in contract 97 to secure one list and they let it slip away. That is why it really is their own fault.

You also had the chance to scope other carriers out, and you didn't. So it is your fault that we were allowed here. So by the same reasoning, it is okay for us to be here.

But you should have voted in our union.

Wow, talk about an arrogant statement. Why should we have voted in your union? This is our company, not yours. This is our relationship with our management, not yours. This affects our lives, not yours. If the majority of our pilots felt like management was not treating us fairly, believe me it would have been voted in. Also it must be noted for the record that there are at least 60 pilots currently at Commutair who were not eligible to vote. That is about 30% of our current seniority list. Also note that the vote was very close, it lost by less than 15 votes. Commutair is not very far from going union IMHO. This was by far the most organized and prolific push for a union here and it barely lost. Give it a little time and you could very well see ALPA on property.

 

[MJG]

I thought this thread was something about "Skywest back to COEX", what the heck happened to that. End the bashing, this is embarassing for everyone. Management folks everywhere must surely be laughing their arses off by now.

 

[BeechSlapped]

They are currently forming a mutual interest Committe run by the anti alpa group. They want to do this as fast as possible to get an agreement to stop the vote from happening again. And guess who will oversee this process, yes Ford &Harrison. This is staight from the union busting playbook

Not one sentence of this is true. Do you just make this stuff up as you go along?

 

[Torey15]

Holy cr@p, people get hot in a hurry under any COEX thread dealing with Commutair/SkyWest! Seriously guys, for those of you who might know, how many furloughees are expected to return to COEX once recalled that are currently flying for one of the two above mentioned companies? Any ballpark estimates or predictions? I believe around 50-60 made it onto the property at SkyWest Any takers???

 

[socalpilot]

The scabbing issue is probably the largest reason why XJet pilots are so concerned about non-union carriers in our system. The other issue is that yes, you guys were given flying that we used to do, CLE-CVG is one that comes to mind, you are correct....they used to be done by the BE1900 at Express until we got rid of them and yes, XJet turned down the prop flying so what are ya gonna do.

Mr Hat, that was a good response and I believe I speak for the rest of the CommutAir pilots when I say that we don't want to cause any problems for the employees of Xjet. The people here at CommutAir are not the type to fly struck work and I seriously doubt the current management would ask us to do that. If the issue of flying struck work was to come up there would be so many people calling in sick or grounding airplanes that the effort would be a complete waste of time. The managment here at CommutAir is pretty good with a few problems that probably are present at most any airlines (scheduling). For the most part it's descent. As my fellow pilot said in a previous post regarding the ALPA vote "If the majority of our pilots felt like management was not treating us fairly, believe me it would have been voted in."

As far as us getting CLE - CVG. I know that used to be express but I don't belive that market could support a jet on such a short stage length. You may have lost that city but you picked up a few others including some city in FL that used to be mainline before 9/11. Most pilots don't think about the business side of operating an airline. They just see that they lost a city and say this is B.S. Do you think it makes sense to fly a jet and lose money or have someone else do it and make a profit? The answer to the problem is to have Xjet do the turboprop flying. However, your company doesn't agree.

Well I don't think that every Commutair pilot should be looked on harshly, however you sir represent the ignorant and misinformed.

That's a pretty strong statement from someone who knows nothing about my background. I feel I'm very informed on the issues at MY company and it is apparent you know nothing about CommutAir. Ask the people who work here about lifestyle and benefits and then compare it to those of other airlines. You might be surprised. The pay could be better but it can't be justified when were flying 19 seat airplanes. Bigger planes / bigger revenue / better pay.

I'm very pleased with some of the good responses from the Xjet pilots. I think we should continue this discussion on another thread. Sorry to the original thread starter for the hijack.

 

[mckpickle]

This is for NEDUDE.

You know you have been on here for years bashing Express. Get turned down hu? sorry to hear that. But you are a downright jackhole.

Your statement about PFT is just stupid. When I got hired at express CA was PFT. Many of my friends went to CA and paid dearly. You know the funny thing though. No one is still there. They all left because of what a joke the place was. They couldn't stand the shceduals and doing 121 legs a day, and having management change the rules whenever they wanted. I'm at Express flying "decent" equipment getting paid "liveable" wages(not what I'm worth by any means but I don't wat ramen). And getting a nice amount of time off.

As far as your statement "Its not your flying", Man If I ever meet you I swear to christ my irish temper might get the best of me. Listen up A$$WIPE. We were hired to Express, A DIVISION OF CAL. We were told we would all be CAL employees. We were told to tell people we work for CAL. We have busted our buts DAY in and DAY out to make CAL one of the best. We now carry over 12 million of CALs pax a year and generate over 1 BILLION IN FUKCING REVENUE. Then CAL sells us to finance its own solventcy. Are we pi$$ED you better believe it. So we don't need a snot nose little fukc like you saying "well it's not your flying" They'll get OUR flying when they pry it from our cold deah fukcing hands. GO FUKC YOURSELF and walk the other way if you ever meet me.


Man how you got hired at CA and not MESA is beyond me.