g159av8tor:
IMHO:
Not to be harsh, but when you get into the 121 airline business, you may understand the reasons that most pilot groups are part of ALPA. It is much more than a simple response to poor management, though that is where ALPA has its roots. ALPA is our voice in many things, and the unity it has provided over the many years it has existed has furthered the careers of ALL pilots, union or not.
The SkyWest pilots don't have a good management to thank for their good working conditions. They instead have their thousands of peers who do contribute their hard earned dollars and scarce free time. Over many years, and many long hard fights, ALPA shops have won the good conditions that the SkyWest pilots now enjoy. Notice that they don't have anything better than the best out there. Their CL65 rates suppossedly mirror those at Comair, while the E120 is suppossedly the same as ours here at ASA. Kind of an interesting coincidence, isn't it?
Now, the animosity that a lot of guys here at ASA feel grows not necessairly from the SkyWest pilots. I've run into a lot of them at OUR hub in DFW, and they are almost without exception good people. That animosity comes more from the fact that we are going into contract negotiations, on the heel of Comair's marginally successful 89 day battle. We are doing it with a new DCI chief who has made it clear to us that we are expendable. We are doing it as we watch Comair come into our hubs, and SkyWest into our hubs. And, we are doing it with the very large threat of a strike proof carrier knocking on our door. We see the whole package a very large threat to our jobs and continued growth.
Having Comair come into our hubs is bad enough, but they are essentially us anyway, and we know what that very unified pilot group is capable of. Hopefully in the not too distant future, Comair and ASA won't exist any more, only a unified Delta Connection operation with our two companies. SkyWest is as you know another story though. To an extent, so is ACA. (just to be fair, I have friends at Comair and ACA too!) Neither them will ever be merged unless Delta buys them too. So, flying and airplanes they get could very well be lost to our pilot groups for ever, instead of hopefully being integrated some day. SkyWest is simply seen as a larger threat by our pilots in contract negotiations due to SKW's lack of a Union, and Fred Buttrell's recent comments.
Hope that may help explain why a lot of us feel the way that we do. SKW is being used as a threat against us. Bad place for everyone to be.
Maybe I'll see you in DFW (or SLC!!) some day in the near future.
