Spirit TA

[:-)]

As I recall, that's not true. The previous CBA was as this one is, except the limit was at 10%. Then the company tried to increase costs of insurance plus increase cost sharing. The union called them on it and won. That's why generic co-pays went from $10 to $11, why office visits went from $15 to $16 and then to $17. That's why the deductible went from $250 to $275, etc.

This is the same as the current contract, except the limit is reduced to 7%. Plus the provisions of health care reform will kick in as the plan is no longer grandfathered--meaning no cost sharing on preventative care, limits on annual and lifetime maximums, etc.

That's great news, they can only increase the cost by 7% a year.

You conveniently forgot to mention that the initial increase is as much as 80% for some of us.

This TA is cost neutral. After all of the political grandstanding, our union tucked their tail and ran like whipped dogs.

Vote NO

PS. POS II Plan B total out of pocket limits were increased by like 1000%. the devil's in the details.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm curious. Did the MEC release to it's members the ' return to work rules ' they negotiated with the company?

My thought is the MEC made some deal with the company to force you guys to keep working as long as the NC keeps talking with the company, in the event this most current TA gets voted down.

I'm not seeing what this strike accomplished at this point, and if the MEC has the power to force it's members back to work....where does this go?

 

[lostplnetairman]

That's great news, they can only increase the cost by 7% a year.

You conveniently forgot to mention that the initial increase is as much as 80% for some of us.

This TA is cost neutral. After all of the political grandstanding, our union tucked their tail and ran like whipped dogs.

Vote NO

PS. POS II Plan B total out of pocket limits were increased by like 1000%. the devil's in the details.

I didn't conveniently forget to mention anything; I was responding to the claim that the deductibles and co-pays could increase beyond 7%. If you read the 2000+ page health care reform law and you will see that, as a non-grandfathered plan, the out of pocket annual and lifetime limits will be subject to the terms of the law. It doesn't matter what's in the contract. CBA's signed after 3/23/2010 have to follow the schedule of provisions in the law. The timetable is later for grandfathered plans. Since this one isn't, the timetable begins to take effect in 2010.


You also need to compare and contrast benefit packages among the carriers with whom compensation parity is desired.

 

[WayBack]

Didn't Comair have the deep pockets of daddy Delta supporting them for 89 days as they were bleeding red ink? Get realistic...the goal is to have a job to come back to...a better job than the one we walked off.

The airline did, yes.
What about these deep pockets of ALPA we hear all about? They have the resources right? They "trained" your MEC leaders how to negotiate, didn't they?

Didn't ALPA reach out to the other ALPA carriers for money for you guys while you were on strike? It might help if you stayed on strike for longer than a week, can't really get a pilot group to vote on something like overnight.
Again, ALPA failed you and will take their 2% every month just to remind you.

 

[WayBack]

I'm not seeing what this strike accomplished at this point, and if the MEC has the power to force it's members back to work....where does this go?

Photo Op for their magazine to cover up the Tim Martins blunder. Air time on the news....other than that, not much.
For the guys who think this is good and will vote YES, I have no idea how you live with yourself. If I were your self-conscious, I'd choke you while you slept.

 

[boomlrd]

The NO voters will win this! Too many of us out there now, they screwed over the biggest group of voters, FO's on 1-5 year pay. Plus with all the downgrades of Captains due to contract efficiencies, those 40 at the bottom will vote NO too! Thats way over half the pilot group at this point, I say lets make it a 98% NO vote and show some unity!

 

[CosmoKramer]

Just look at 4 year captain pay....it is 35/hr less than jetblue...so if they grow in the next couple of years you will be making 27 percent less than a jetblue pilot....i can't believe this....even jblu's e-190's rate will be 21 dollars more than nks....this is the biggest f-up i've seen. I am in total disgust and awe at ALPA. I apologize to all my peers...We tried, but our union failed us....We had the leverage and couldn't close the deal....vote no if you have any self respect.....

 

[lostplnetairman]

The NO voters will win this! Too many of us out there now, they screwed over the biggest group of voters, FO's on 1-5 year pay. Plus with all the downgrades of Captains due to contract efficiencies, those 40 at the bottom will vote NO too! Thats way over half the pilot group at this point, I say lets make it a 98% NO vote and show some unity!

Hey Herb are you upset they'll take away your LOA?

 

[flygirlqt]

Photo Op for their magazine to cover up the Tim Martins blunder. Air time on the news....other than that, not much.

Quite true. ALPA sold each and every one of you out. It is all about dues for ALPA, nothing more. Effective representation takes a back seat to keep their revenue stream intact.

 

[Caveman]

Pay rates shouldn't be the sole focus, but........

A quick comparison of apples to apples rates (DOS vs OAL current rates) shows in general this TA still leaves you guys behind everybody else. Your company made $100,000,000+ last year. This is their first real offer. If it were me I'd pass and see what the next offer looks like. Even adding $10 an hour to the proposed rates only amounts to $5M. That still leaves them $95,000,000 in profit. They can afford it and they're not going to shut the doors because of 5% less profit year over year. YMMV

 

[WayBack]

That still leaves them $95,000,000 in profit. They can afford it and they're not going to shut the doors because of 5% less profit year over year. YMMV

If this is true about their profits, not saying it's not. Then you need big pay increases.
If they can't afford to pay employees, then they need to shut the doors.

 

[Beetle007]

Just listened to the union phone call

According to the ALPA lawyer, the NMB member (Linda Puchala) was the person who helped put this deal together and gave each party what she considered a fair contract. Linda is a previous Union president and was one of the members on the NMB who voted to release Spirit into self help. She is currently labor friendly. http://www.nmb.gov/directory/dirboard.html

Even though we are in self help, it would only take one phone call from Linda to convince Obama to establish a Presidential Emergency Board which would stop us from striking (she was appointed by Obama). If we vote this TA down, it is possible we would be stopped from going on strike a second time. According to the ALPA lawyer, we might end up fighting for our contract in a court and it is possible a court would give us a worse contract due to the costs the company incurred from us going on strike.

In my opinion, ALPA national wants us to vote yes for this contract because they consider it a fair contract and it met all of their goals. More importantly, ALPA national doesn't want to lose favor with the NMB to release other ALPA airlines into self-help in the near future.

 

[boomlrd]

Beetle007 = Bailman

 

[Beetle007]

Beetle007 = Bailman

I am also Frisco FO on airlinepilotcentral.com

 

[lostplnetairman]

It was a good conference call.