The Comair strike, another perspective..

[ifly4food]

SDD,
I have to say I'm not very impressed with your logic and a little hurt by your acccusations.
You know that ASA and Delta have no strike clauses. It would have been illegal for us to strike along side you or take any other job action against our company.
Ask the APA what can happen when you violate the RLA... didn't they get fined/sued for a total of $40mil? That worked out to about $40,000 per pilot. Ouch.
And with "Dubbya the Unionbuster" in the White house now, all bets are off.

At ASA, we sent checks, refused many flights that even REMOTELY resembled struck work and conducted "informational" picketing at our hubs. Many of our pilots even joined you on your picket line in CVG.

What more could we have done to support you?

We appreciated what you were doing as we still do.
If you heard a select few ASA pilots talking of taking advantage of your situation, I'm sure you know they don't represent the majority of us.
As for ASA pilots not wanting to jeopardize our jobs by conducting an illegal writup campaign or even a strike, you bet we weren't willing. It was your battle to fight, not ours. We supported you in every reasonable way, but we weren't on strike... you were.

If your neighbor set his house on fire in protest, whould you set yours on fire too? Or would you stand in the street and cheer him on?

 

[RJFlyer]

Skydiverdriver,

The strike's over - why can't you just let it go? Well, since you can't, here are a few questions for you:

1) Do you feel you (Comair pilots) actually did change the industry? I do, because you made Delta realize all the steps it needs to take to prevent anything like that ever happening again (i.e. ASA's upcoming contract negotiations and the interesting Skywest & Comair expansion/ASA stagnation)

2) What do you think the Comair pilots will do on all the formerly ASA routes (that Delta is switching Comair and Skywest to) if the ASA pilots go on strike next year?

3) The Comair (and Skywest) pilots on this board sure seem happy with all the expansion/hiring/training that is going on (or will be soon). How do you explain that, seeing as most of it is at ASA's expense?

And before anyone brings up the fact that ASA is taking over a bunch of Delta's former routes - I realize this, and from what I see, it plays into Delta management's hand. What I see happening is this: Delta management brings Comair and Skywest into ASA's hubs, taking over current ASA flying (and adding flying that should be ours), and concurrently takes the downsized Delta routes and has ASA start flying them. So if ASA does strike, there is very little impact. Delta gets its old routes back (not struck, since they weren't ours to begin with) and the ATL and DFW hubs are covered because of the added coverage by Comair/Skywest.

Thanks, Comair (and Skydiverdriver), for changing the industry. And costing me the advancement you are now enjoying.

 

[Little Bubba]

RJflyer, Have you ever thought of maybe Comair is offering a better product than ASA? Having jumpseated with both over the years, it looks to me Comair is doing a better job with customer than service than ASA.

 

[ifly4food]

SDD,
Let me add this thought...
I wonder why you didn't take this discussion to the main ALPA message board. I'd love to see the warm and fuzzy response you'd get there. Especially without anonymity to hide behind.

 

[ifly4food]

RJflyer, Have you ever thought of maybe Comair is offering a better product than ASA? Having jumpseated with both over the years, it looks to me Comair is doing a better job with customer than service than ASA.

That was a cheap shot, Bubba.
If Delta doesn't like our product they have every means to improve it. To simply farm out our flying because they don't like us doesn't make any business sense.
By your comment about jumpseating I take it you don't work at either company. Perhaps you should refrain from commenting on companies you don't have first hand knowledge of for the risk of making a fool out of yourself.

 

[Marko Ramius]

Ever get that feeling that we are all acting like crabs in a barrell somethimes? 9/11 seems to have intensified that quite a bit.

 

[rjcap]

Little Bubba,

I'll take a shot at your comment regarding quality of product.

ASA product is Delta product. If Delta wanted to improve customer service down in here in good ole Atlanta they could spend the money and hire decent people.

I have lived in Cincinnati and spent time in CVG. I agree customer service is better but that is due to the demographic of the area. Atlanta does not have the number of employable people that CVG does and won't for many years. If Delta (ASA) wants to really improve the quality of the product here in ATL they will have to either raise compensation or bring customer service reps from other locations.

 

[skydiverdriver]

Dear Mr Sig,
You take a lot of trouble to answer my questions, and I appreciate that. I'm just wondering why you leave some alone, but I guess that's up to you. You asked if the rjdc or comair mec did the pid, and that was the comair mec. Only an ALPA MEC can ask for a policy implementation with the union. However, since it was turned down (illegally in my opinion), and ALPA cannot sue itself, it took a group of non-MEC pilots to start litigation, thus the rjdc. You ask why I don't put this as my opinion, and I ask, why does it matter? Why not answer the question, whether it's my opinion or not? You ask us why we voted to strike on our own, well we did, but we weren't on our own, after your company purchased us. We voted to strike before we were owned by DAL, and went on strike afterward. That made us a part of YOUR airline. Also, we did vote no, twice, but our MEC asked us to vote yes on the last one. Many people did, and we had to, in my opinion, because of the lack of help we were getting from you and yours. I'm not angry about it though, as we took a risk with some illegal actions, as you would have if you had helped more. We were willing to do it, and you weren't. I also agree that you were in a difficult position with your own negotiations going on, but again, it should have been a team effort. I'm not saying that anything different could have happened, I'm just saying that nobody should ask us what more we could have done. WE did a lot. You might ask what more YOU could have done to help.

For the guy who wonders why I brought it up, it's because it's going to happen again, and people need to know what happened. ASA is coming up soon, and our hands will be tied, as we have a no-strike/no handbilling clause. And, of course the injunction was dropped after the strike. What does that have to do with the fact that we still did all we could? Did the fact that it was illegal stop us, or keep us from getting the proffer?

 

[skydiverdriver]

to rjflyer,

Please explain what I, or any Comair pilot is doing to take your advancement away? Are you saying that we are expanding because we were forced into this contract, and now make "regional" standard pay? Perhaps you are confusing what Delta, ASA and Comair MANAGEMENT are doing with what our PILOTS are doing. They control the marketing and aircraft allocation. We were fighting for industry standard pay and work rules. I don't see what I did to take your advancement away.

And the reason Delta pilots are being furloughed is their own greed. We tried to help you with that, and you refused to even talk about it. Your senior pilots also turned down a reduction in hours to help the junior guys. I guess you don't take care of your own either, do you?

 

[ifly4food]

Re: to rjflyer,

And the reason Delta pilots are being furloughed is their own greed. We tried to help you with that, and you refused to even talk about it. Your senior pilots also turned down a reduction in hours to help the junior guys. I guess you don't take care of your own either, do you?

That's a pretty bold statement, even for you. Have you been enjoying a little too much "holiday cheer"?