SWAPA Info packet FEDEXed to all AirTran Pilots

[CaptWidgeon]

ahhhhh, forget it.

 

[Daddy]

I am thinking that if this thread is indicative of the mood at airtran towards integration, then it will never happen. I wish I could give you guys the perspective here, but it is just something you have to see. You should realize that it is probably most cost-efficient not to integrate and that SWA mgmt is trying to be the good guy here...I would not expect that to last forever.

 

[kwick]

I am thinking that if this thread is indicative of the mood at airtran towards integration, then it will never happen. I wish I could give you guys the perspective here, but it is just something you have to see. You should realize that it is probably most cost-efficient not to integrate and that SWA mgmt is trying to be the good guy here...I would not expect that to last forever.

Dude, You must be smart enough to know that if you attempt to rape
somebody they're gonna fight back.

 

[GoodTimes]

The current SWAPA contract guarantees us almost nothing in the long term. That is reality my friend. Why is that so hard for some people to understand? Contracts come and go with no guarantees, that's a fact, it's a snapshot in time. Seniority numbers don't come with an ammendable date, your contract does.

This isn't rocket science. Look at DAL/UAL/UsAir in 2001. Go back further and look at Pan Am, Eastern, Braniff and more recently, TWA. Bad things can happen to good airlines, it's a historical fact.

Clyde,

That's a pretty thin argument considering you've been bought by the most successful airline in the history of airlines. 38 consecutive years of profitability. Never furloughed a pilot. Labor relations that are the envy of the corporate world. The list goes on. Trying to discount your gains by comparing SWA to the giants of the regulated era and their slow, painful decline comes across as disingenuous at best. Your life is getting better, not worse. The numbers don't lie and eventually you'll have to consider the concerns of the SWA pilots as this thing moves forward.

 

[Crash Pad]

Did I miss something? Say I get the packet and blow my load all over it. I think "WOW I could be rich!" Then what? Can I move over to SWA tomorrow? I can't change anything I'm still along for the ride.

Maybe I get the packet and my head explodes. I start having flashbacks of Nam and every other CEO this fine industry has had in its storied history. I'm breathing fire. I'm ready to send a message to SWAPA.... I still can't change anything and am along for the ride.

I don't understand what the packet does one way or another. I'll let it rain cold hard facts in here. Anything that gets past our negotiators and goes to our pilots for a vote will pass. SWAPA doesn't have to convince us, our wives, families etc... All they have to do is slip just enough seniority into the talks to get it past our negotiators.

That also doesn't matter because anything that gets past our negotiators won't pass a SWAPA vote.

 

[PapaWoody]

It was around daybreak...the first freight train to Omaha had just rumbled overhead. A FedEx truck screamed by and under my slightly used sleeping bag I heard a package land softly by the spillway me, my wife and son call home. I jumped to my feet thinking this must be my new Section 8 housing application! It was not...it was something much better...a letter from SWAPA. As I read the note my excitement grew! "Honey, come look!" As she read...she began to weep. "Does this mean I can get my tooth cleaned?" I nooded with a joyous grin. At the same time my boy was stirring from his slumber. As he began tying his Kleenex boxes to his feet I said "Son.....your daddy just hit the jackpot....no more boxes on your feet." He jumped for joy. "How did this happen?" he said. My wife and I were halfway through a bottle of MD 20/20. I replied..."A great purple and orange angel from the sky has saved us...no more living under a bridge...no more panhandling so Dad can get PopEyes in concourse C." We had a celebratory breakfast of sparrow legs and squirrel meat (fresh off the interstate). After that, I ran to the library so I could get on-line and read of the windfall we all have discovered. The security guard gave me an interrogating glare as I walked past. The local library dosent allow us AirTran hobos inside (even for a shower). After I stole some books to make a fire for the night to come...I got on FI. All I can say is "Thank You SWA" .....no more freight trains to work...fighting crack heads for the last subway spot.....hoping Gen. Lee will throw me a quarter as I stand in my uniform on the street corner....and most of all...electricity, water and a roof over our head.

I don't care who you are, that was funny right there!!

Well bowled, sir - PW

 

[redflyer65]

Lear- not trying to flame here but if SWA management is using the "if" word in their correspondence with you, then it probably is a thinly veiled threat. SWA can be very cold and brutal if need be. Ask any ATA pilot if you don't believe me. SWA WILL not accept any solution that harms a current SWA pilot's career and neither will we. This of course does not have to be the case though. Hopefully your MC and our NC will be able to hammer something out that is agreeable to both sides. Please don't let a few hard core ALPA thugs dictate what the majority of AAI plots want- a reasonable integration in line with previous career expectations. It seems a few gooned it up for the F9 boys and girls, don't let that happen here.
PS lot's of moving parts still in this deal. For example, we're now hearing that the 717 sims won't be going to DAL and the planes them selves are being sold to Boeing.

Well stated sir.

 

[gt1900]

Money doesn't buy me weekends and holidays off. Money doesn't buy me the ability to be able to watch my kids saturday soccer and football games. Money doesn't get me off to spend long weekends with my wife. Money doesn't give me good schedules when I near retirement so I don't have to work so hard. Seniority does. Get it? AAI guys are smart enough to know that money comes and goes. Look how much money UAL gave up, and now AAI pilots make more then them. Contracts last for 4 years, seniority lasts for a career. BTW.. I live well below my means, so I don't need the money. I need to keep my weekends, holidays, and what ever days I want off, off. Money doesn't do that, but seniority sure does! Im really excited to be a member of SWAPA and SWA. I was hoping that when that happened I would no longer have to deal with some of the chit we had to deal with at AAI. However, this letter makes me believe its going to be the same old crap, just different airline. I hope Im really wrong. Big mistake by SWAPA IMO.

And now Im off for the beach for a week of ice cold beers and grilling out on the beach and forgetting what seems like we are re-living our last contract negotiations. Luckily, my seniority allows me to bid whatever vacation days I want off in order to do that. If I cant do that at SWA when I get there, then you can keep the money.

 

[redflyer65]

Money doesn't buy me weekends and holidays off. Money doesn't buy me the ability to be able to watch my kids saturday soccer and football games. Money doesn't get me off to spend long weekends with my wife. Money doesn't give me good schedules when I near retirement so I don't have to work so hard. Seniority does. Get it? AAI guys are smart enough to know that money comes and goes. Look how much money UAL gave up, and now AAI pilots make more then them. Contracts last for 4 years, seniority lasts for a career. BTW.. I live well below my means, so I don't need the money. I need to keep my weekends, holidays, and what ever days I want off, off. Money doesn't do that, but seniority sure does! Im really excited to be a member of SWAPA and SWA. I was hoping that when that happened I would no longer have to deal with some of the chit we had to deal with at AAI. However, this letter makes me believe its going to be the same old crap, just different airline. I hope Im really wrong. Big mistake by SWAPA IMO.

And now Im off for the beach for a week of ice cold beers and grilling out on the beach and forgetting what seems like we are re-living our last contract negotiations. Luckily, my seniority allows me to bid whatever vacation days I want off in order to do that. If I cant do that at SWA when I get there, then you can keep the money.

Wait a minute...you're excited that you NOW make as much as United? You are now comparing the new 'Southwest induced' AAI payscales to a bankrupt contract at United. Really? After comparing a Airtran Captain rate and a SW FO rate. (PS- the FO make more if you didn't look more closely)

It might be best that you not bring up anymore payrate comparisons, you obviously don't see how out of touch you appear with this stuff.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Money doesn't buy me weekends and holidays off. Money doesn't buy me the ability to be able to watch my kids saturday soccer and football games. Money doesn't get me off to spend long weekends with my wife. Money doesn't give me good schedules when I near retirement so I don't have to work so hard. Seniority does. Get it? AAI guys are smart enough to know that money comes and goes. Look how much money UAL gave up, and now AAI pilots make more then them. Contracts last for 4 years, seniority lasts for a career. BTW.. I live well below my means, so I don't need the money. I need to keep my weekends, holidays, and what ever days I want off, off. Money doesn't do that, but seniority sure does! Im really excited to be a member of SWAPA and SWA. I was hoping that when that happened I would no longer have to deal with some of the chit we had to deal with at AAI. However, this letter makes me believe its going to be the same old crap, just different airline. I hope Im really wrong. Big mistake by SWAPA IMO.

And now Im off for the beach for a week of ice cold beers and grilling out on the beach and forgetting what seems like we are re-living our last contract negotiations. Luckily, my seniority allows me to bid whatever vacation days I want off in order to do that. If I cant do that at SWA when I get there, then you can keep the money.

Newsflash! Your company just got bought out. You'll probably be lucky to even have a job when it's all over.

Some of you guys cannot see the forest from the trees.