Spirit to hire directly from ERAU?

[fam62c]

My question is this: how hard did the Spirit pilot group fight this? Did they go public with a statement saying that the company is making a conscious choice to hire less experienced pilots over much more experienced ones? The same thing is going on at JetBlue and I would ask them the same question. The public should know that this is happening. They may not care but they should know. The regional carriers and foreign carriers do this but not because they want to....they have to do it to get pilots. I find it hard to believe that there is or will ever be an environment where Spirit or JetBlue can't hire pilots with previous airline experience. Don't get me wrong, there are sharp people who can learn the job with low experience. I also agree that there are certain people with a lot of hours and experience who would make bad employees, however, with all things being equal why on earth would you take the least experienced pilots? I have to say that I think a little less of both Spirit and JetBlue because of this.

 

[troll565]

All I know is that we're growing and every single other airline is cutting back and selling planes.

Who cares? Life is too short.

 

[Gearthrower]

So we should all just stop trying to make it a better place to work because it could suck more if we where at another airline. Take a look at Flying the Line II read the chapter that covers Lorenzo and all the fun and games he played with his pilots and other employee groups. This is just the time when you have to be on the greatest lookout for things such as this that really do not make sense. Come on, we need to hire Riddle grad's because there are no more qualified pilot's, what a joke.

 

[MINIME]

All I know is that we're growing and every single other airline is cutting back and selling planes.

Who cares? Life is too short.

Who cares? I'll bet that one day you will. When you're forced to accept crappier work rules and even lower wages. Not possible you think? If I have a stack of resumes that reach the ceiling and are all willing to work for peanuts, where does that leave you? It leaves you with no negotiating capital, thus management not having to give you anything. If you can't see this coming, then perhaps a little reading into Flying the Line might be a good idea.

Know this, some of these kids are willing to work for free just for the chance to show their my-space buddies that they fly a big jet. Doesn't make them bad human beings per say, just naive. They can be book smart everyday of the week and twice on Sundays, but 99% of them lack the experience as to how pilots maintain a liveable wage in this industry. And at the Major level, this is simply unacceptable. It affects too many people's lives who've worked hard to get to this level. Yourself included I presume.

Managements around this country will be high fiving one another if this is left unchallenged. There are plenty of well qualified candidates waiting their turn. This is not a need, it's a strategic undercutting move by this or these companies.

 

[Superpilot92]

All I know is that we're growing and every single other airline is cutting back and selling planes.

Who cares? Life is too short.

I hope you joking?

 

[Bighorn]

We dont have a union at Spirit. We will when the new regime takes over. I think its in 2 months. The current one has no opinion and doesn't care.

 

[Gearthrower]

New Regime in 27 days and 3 hrs but who's counting!

 

[Beetle007]

How long before LGA, ACY and SJU will elect their capt and fo reps? Anyone know the ALPA timeline once a base is opened?

 

[enigma]

BIGHORN says "
We dont have a union at Spirit. We will when the new regime takes over. I think its in 2 months. The current one has no opinion and doesn't care."

I ask, when was the last time you attended an LC meeting? .....offered an LC resolution?.....volunteered to help your fellow pilots?.....

Yes the Spirit Pilots have a Union, unfortunately most choose not to participate. And don't give me the reasoning that the 109 reps don't work with people they don't like. The MEC Chair (me for those who haven't figured it out) has only turned down one volunteer and he happened to be a DTW pilot who couldn't gain the support of his own LEC.

If the Spirit pilots expect our new reps to be effective, we'd better be willing to give them our full support. If we expect that we can all continue asking "ALPA" to fix something while we individually do what is best for ourselves, we're going to be in for huge disappointment.

 

[Chuck Steak]

Its funny to see when you get some hot shot riddle guy who ends up at mesa!! you guys spend that much $ to get "the best education" out there and then many of you end up at mesa???? I guess they don't teach common sense there!