The Future of UsaJet

[GOAROUND]

My dear fellow pilots at UsaJet,
I really like the company and the pilots but totally disagree with the direction in which the management is directing the company. The only thing consistent about the company is that they are consistently inconsistent. I would now like to mention a few points selectively.

First and foremost nobody listen to Mr.fuller defend the company. He is the same guy who does not need to pray to God about a heart attack he just needs to keep flying the Falcon andhe will eventually crash. After conducting his life in such a manner that led to 4 marriages and 2 bankrupticies he just needs to focus on staying alive not crashing and loving his life.

On the issue of randy hotton he is a nice guy, but I promise all of you that God has reserved a place in hell of him for all the times he has lied to pilots and misled them. I can assure you that what i am saying is true i have seen it for the last ten years.

The company once again decided to be inconsistent and not layoff. I along with tons of other pilots who have been here for a while , and some who have even been laid off before are paying the price to keep others around. The company is basically being inconsisitent again doing what benefits them. If they really were serious abouty saving money then Randy, Ray, Otten.Healy and all the other management boys would be taking PAYCUTS. In addition they do not need all the useless bodies in dispatch. Like they claim if business is slow why have at least 10 extra bodies in flight following. The more they layoff the better it is. All the additional expenses like insurance(approx$10000/yr) that is provided to full time employees really takes away from the bottom line at Usajet. What is hurting this company is lack of vision and leadership. Flying a few passanger trips is not new business.Flying overseas and getting contracts around the world is smart. This company has dug it's own grave by having the worst cost control and accountability,and now they want me to pay for their lack of planning.If we always ran a lean ship we would not be having this problem. As for the surges in business if management flew instead of sitting in the office we could probably handle those surges in business.

I urge all pilots to get together and unionize. Another pilot i know called the teamsters, and next week 5 of us are going to meet with them. After all ray did say that the company has 4 months left. Let's get a union asap and not be
treated and punished like a child ever again.

 

[FreightNazi]

On the issue of randy hotton he is a nice guy, but I promise all of you that God has reserved a place in hell of him for all the times he has lied to pilots and misled them. I can assure you that what i am saying is true i have seen it for the last ten years.


Any response YIP, I mean Randy?

 

[ATRCAPT]

Wow - It sounds like my company only with jets! Good Luck guys!

 

[PCL_128]

On the issue of randy hotton he is a nice guy, but I promise all of you that God has reserved a place in hell of him

Oh, give me a break. Can the melodrama, you sound like a fool. Your comments are disgusting. You'd rather layoff junior pilots that have families of their own that they need to take care of just so you can keep a few extra thousand dollars a year? You represent everything that is wrong with this industry. "I've got mine, so screw you." If there's a place in Hell reserved for anyone, then it's not for Randy. It's for people like you that don't give a crap about the junior pilots and dispatchers that you'd like to see lose their jobs so you can have a few extra bucks. Truly sickening display.

 

[clansinclair]

Goaround,

Since you felt compelled to air some of my personal business, which by the way I'm not ashamed of, unfortunate things happen in life, and I've sacrificed much to be in this industry.

I happen to agree with you that the company should've laid off the excess pilot numbers and operate lean. Not because I relish anyone losing their job, but because of the fairness inherent in the issue.

I defend the company because I sincerely believe that the "power brokers" really want to do the right things most of the time. I don't always agree with their decisions, but that doesn't make me question their scruples.

I don't believe you hold the position of "I've got mine, screw you!" I sincerely understand why you feel the way you do. I too, have endured a lay off and all the other difficulties of the past 5 years at the company.

I respect your position regarding the union idea. I personally don't think it'd be a good idea because I don't think that unions serve their members any better than management serves us. The unions represent a whole new and costly set of difficulties that the company just wouldn't be able to bear, especially in this economic environment.

However, I would fully support an internally organized effort among us pilots to improve the situation without driving the company into insolvency. The union idea has been presented at least twice to the pilots, and both times, the initiative was voted down by us. There's got to be a better way of achieving redress without resorting to again trying to unionize the pilots.

Surely, utilizing the tools available to us, we can affect and cause better results that would accelerate our cause and preserve financial resources for our direct benefit, as opposed to the company paying out to others to resist and probably again defeat the initiative.

For example, we can choose to operate absolutely and strictly "by the book", resolve to turn all those "grey areas" of operation into either black or white consistently, fly flight plans exactly as they are filed, we can quit bending to the will of the customer service department when they ask us to go above and beyond the reasonable call of duty, and a whole host of other legal means that will reflect our disatisfaction with the status quo. In other words, let's organize ourselves, stick together, and work together. We as the captains in the company can influence a lot more change for the good, at less cost, than going through the union excersize again.

Here's an idea, why not have every single pilot at the company tune up their resume and start sending them out to anyone who'll take them. Perhaps when the company starts getting hundreds of record requests from everywhere and not knowing who's leaving if/or when, they'll rethink the current position?

Lastly, I wish you no ill, but if you want to attack me on a personal level, have the guts to do it to my face and don't hide behind your computer. It's the height of cowardice. I think you know that.

 

[pilotyip]

Check out Go-arounds post under Kallitta, he recommends USA Jet as a place to work. Talk about mixed messages

 

[GOAROUND]

PCL128-yes I WOULD RATHER LAYOFF FIRST OFFICERS ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE MAKING THE SAME MONEY AS UNEMPLOYMENT. No one saved my job all the times i was laid of . why dont you make up my 30% pay cut and i'll think differently. Companies have to stop doing whatever they want and have to be consistent.
CLANSINCLAIR- I am not attacking you i am stating facts . I am stating the truth. Do not be offended. Ifi lie or mislead people about you then you have reason to be offended. Like you said things happen so be proud of your consistent mpoor decisions. Word of advice Think twice before you buy another $40,000 car.
PILOTYIP- I recomended USAJET as a place to work and sung the praises about the company before i saw how inconsistently you implemented rules and workpolicies. Back then i praised the company because you had me fooled by your lies.

 

[PCL_128]

No one saved my job all the times i was laid of

So that's supposed to make it ok to layoff a bunch of fellow pilots? As cliched as it is, two wrongs just don't make a right. The pilots at AirTran had the right idea after 9/11. Management came to them to discuss the possibility of furloughs and the union made an agreement with management to take a temporary paycut to save the jobs of the junior pilots. That's how things should be done. We should look out for each other. You think those junior pilots don't have families that they have to take care of? Unemployment benefits don't last forever. Stop being so selfish and think about your fellow pilots.

 

[T-REX]

Not taking sides here. But what do you think would happen if Pinnacle told their pilots that due to NWA losing money that they are receiving paycuts????
But no one wants to see anyone lose their jobs either.

MOST INDECISIVE POST EVER!

 

[clansinclair]

Goaround,

You did attack me personally by stating some well known facts implicitly designed to try and embarass me (which by the way, doesn't).

I'm only offended by the fact that you try to hide the weakness of your position by the use of ad hominin towards me, which I notice that you continue to do in the relative safety of anonymity. The use of such tactics reveal the weakness of the argument as well those of the one who presents the argument.

Notwithstanding your cowardly ways, I continue to share your sentiments of our plight at USA Jets. I don't agree with your apparent solution, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in working together to explore all options to resolving the current situation.

I can only assume that you attack my integrity, from behind your computer alias, because you don't share my opinion of the USA Jet management. Furthermore, I can only assume that you fear the retribution that might or might not be forthcoming from the management or myself. In this, I can only speak for myself. Who knows what management will do when they find out who you are, and they will find out. As for me, have no fear. Though there is little doubt that I could totally anialate you in a physical confrontation, you are not worth my personal freedom, the cost of criminal and civil representation, court costs, medical and rehabilitive costs that you would most assuredly need, nor anyother consequence that I would have to endure for the relative quick, possibly deadly, and ultimately fruitless enterprise.

It is also a well-known fact around the company that I have an extensive background in martial arts training to include an 8th Degree Black Belt, as this was my career prior to becoming a pilot. Past experience has taught me well the aforementioned consequences of participating in physical combat with someone like yourself, which ultimately required me to file one of the bankruptcies you mentioned. (the other the result of having a child born downsyndrome, 90 days of neonatal intensive care, open heart surgery to repair his ventricular septal heart defect, and other medical bills that came to over a quarter million dollars).

So brother, you need not fear me. You simply are not worth it. If it inflates your small ego to state certain irrelavant "facts", makes you feel good about yourself by trying to belittle others of obviously superior character and integrity who perchance have endured some of the most difficult situations that life can offer anybody, and if you are unable to bolster your opinion and position in anyother way, then by all means continue to do so. It will only continue to expose your cowardice and lack of merit, and in this way I defeat you without so much as lifting a finger.

 

[PCL_128]

Not taking sides here. But what do you think would happen if Pinnacle told their pilots that due to NWA losing money that they are receiving paycuts????
But no one wants to see anyone lose their jobs either.

MOST INDECISIVE POST EVER!

Pinnacle has a union, so the company would not be able to just change our payscales suddenly. It would have to be negotiated. However, just in theory, if the company were able to do that then I would much prefer taking a small paycut than me keeping my present payscale and having my friends on the bottom of the list out on the street. I just can't imagine the frame of mind that someone has to have to think that they are so important that the junior pilots have to just suffer so they can keep their paycheck.

 

[clansinclair]

PCL128,

I understand what you are saying, but a 25+% paycut combined with a 3 yr. long incremental pay freeze, loss of other pay bonuses, and reduced per diem doesn't add up to a "small paycut".

I'm just curious, to what level of negative economic impact would you be willing to go to protect junior pilots jobs? To what level of suffering are you willing to let your family suffer for the sake of their family? Would you be willing to endure repossession of your automobile, foreclosure on your house, etc? If you are, you're a bigger man than me.

I would totally agree with you if the paycut merely represented "extra" money I was just banking anyway.

 

[GOAROUND]

Pcl128- Get A Clue

PCL128,
You obviously do not know usajet. If our company told us that the pay reduction would only last few months it may not be a problem. The problem is that there are no defined time limits as to how long they are going to last. There is no option because we don't have a union to fight for us. In the past when the company has taken something away from us we had never gotten it back. i bet you have a union to protect you.

 

[T-REX]

Pinnacle has a union, so the company would not be able to just change our payscales suddenly. It would have to be negotiated.

Exactly!!

 

[PCL_128]

PCL128,

I understand what you are saying, but a 25+% paycut combined with a 3 yr. long incremental pay freeze, loss of other pay bonuses, and reduced per diem doesn't add up to a "small paycut".

I'm just curious, to what level of negative economic impact would you be willing to go to protect junior pilots jobs? To what level of suffering are you willing to let your family suffer for the sake of their family? Would you be willing to endure repossession of your automobile, foreclosure on your house, etc? If you are, you're a bigger man than me.

I would totally agree with you if the paycut merely represented "extra" money I was just banking anyway.

I say a "small paycut" because Randy has said that you will still be able to sell your new days off back to the company and not come up that much short of your previous pay. Now, I don't know for sure, but if what Randy said is true, then I think it is much preferable to people losing their jobs, no matter how junior they are. I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to take a huge paycut to avoid others from losing their jobs, but some amount of sacrifice is warranted in consideration of your fellow pilots. If you read GOAROUND's posts, it makes it sound as though he doesn't think he should have to put up with anything as long as the junior pilots can suffer in his place. I certainly think that seniority is important and should have its rewards (I'm pretty senior myself), but seniority should not trump all consideration for the livelihood and well being of the junior pilots. Not to mention the dispatchers that he says this of: "The more they layoff the better it is." Such a nice guy.

 

[GOAROUND]

CLANSINCLAIR-
I have no desire to see you in person, and i've already told you that you have consistently made bad decisions all your life to your face Iam not saying anything new. The purpose of this forum is to post threads not to interrupt my day to see you to show who i am . The fact of the matter is that the truth is really hurting you to the point that you want to beat me up. Violence is not the answer. The answer is in the logo "if you can't beat your competition join them." Please stop defending upper management and realize that they have made a huge mistake by being inconsistent again. Stop wasting your time on this forum abd try to change their mind. You do have the gift of the gab,and when you go to see them make sure you drive that thunderbird before it get's repossessed.

 

[GOAROUND]

PCL128- IN a perfect world we would be able to sell our days off. In THE dc-9 I have hardly sold any days back. So now do you see why this pay cut is affecting me. The company is not always willing to buy days back especially when it is slow as it is.

 

[GOAROUND]

buying days off

PCL128- I was looking at the pilot board and saw that the company is short on crews, because they are flying the friends of the pistons to Miami. They still are not going to buy my days off. Exactly the point i had made before. You can offer and they dont always buy days back.

 

[clansinclair]

Goaround,

Yes, I have made bad decisions all my life, and I'm sure as long as I live I will continue to make bad decisions from time to time. It's called being human.
However, that's not the same as saying that all the decisions I've made in my life were bad, as you seem to be trying to imply so poorly.

Your pathetic attempts to justify your cowardice is self evident for all who read you. Your lack of skill and acumen in the art and science of logical debate will only serve to render your unionization efforts to no effect as well.

As I stated before, I wish you no ill-fate whatsoever. In fact, I feel the utmost pity for you. I can't imagine how terrible it must feel to have to hide behind your computer alias for the lack of courage of openly claiming your dubious position. Such tactics you share with other notables of your type, al qaeda and Iraqi insurgents, Viet Cong, etc. Even O Sama Bin Laden at least has the courage to let the world know who he is.
But he is a "leader" of sorts. You are no leader by any stretch of the imagination.

Just so you know, I have and am currently trying to change management's mind about the current situation. Unlike you, I've put my concerns, in writing and openly identifying myself, directly to Chris Healy, Ray Mundt, and Fred Testa. You see, I have the firm conviction of the merits of my position enough that I don't have to hide under a rock like a snake.

I thank you for your genuine concern that I enjoy my $40,000.00 Ford Thunderbird as long as possible. It's true, holding on to it in the current economic climate will be much more difficult, if not impossible. I'm sure hanging on to the trailer that you probably live in and the "heap" that you must drive will be much easier to keep. However, I do have another $40,000.00 Mitsubishi Montero that's paid for and a Mercury Mystique that's nearly paid for. It remains to be seen if I can manage to keep the T-bird, but no matter what, I haven't, nor will I lose my dignity and character because of the situation. Whereas, you appear to have surrendered both even before the real effects of the situation have started. An automobile can be replaced rather easily, dignity and character takes a lifetime to aquire. I'll take my loss over yours anytime.

 

[leardrivr]

You guys are getting a little personal. Don't you think? anyway after hearing your arguments let me give you an Opinion from the outside looking in. Don't go to the teamsters or any other union at your current state of pilot unity! Believe me if you do not have a strong bond and great leadership from within your pilot group. You will just end up giving away some of your hard earned money and be no better off in the long run. The company I work for has poor leadership and zero unity among the pilot group. The current contract we operate under has no pay protection. No protection for work rules and the mediators and the union body generaly side with the company on most issues. We have a new tenative agreement which would be a step backwords in quality of life for a very weak raise. I do not blame the union it's self for the current situation. It is clearly a lack of leadership from are pilot group. There was no communication between the reps and the rest of us. Everyone biatch about it all the time but nothing was done to bring the two groups together. Because the pilot group is fractured. This was partly by design from the company buy the way. The contract we operate under and the new offer actualy benefit the company more than the pilot group. just something to think about!