Vote

[Spencer]

Hey everybody it's time to vote. If you haven't gotten your ballot contact the NMB immediately by sending a request signed by you to NMB, Office of Legal Affairs 1301 K Street , NW, Suite 250 East, Washington, DC 20005. You must have the request in by 1/13/2004.

The votes will be tallied on the 20th. I hope everybody sees the recent change in Chief Pilots for what it is. A ploy to attempt to sway the vote. Don't kid yourself into thinking all will be better. The guys who control the money are the ones who decide if it is cost effective to bring you home for your days off, give you time off without pay etc...

You have probably noticed that if you make a mistake in November you get a letter or a pay cut but when it's slow you get fired or time off. It's all money to them. When you mess up and they don't fire you it isn't because they like you it is because it cost money to replace you.

 

[LUVTUL]

Maybe the change in Chief Pilots is a ploy, but I really doubt it. Maybe it is simply time for a change? What does amaze me is how so many of the pilots at USA Jet THINK that a Union will change anything! If I am not mistaken, didnt Grand Aire vote in a Union a few years ago? And now look where they are. Have any of you guys spoke with the pilots over there and listened to what a Union did for them? Absoulutely NOTHING!
What you are missing is the very important point. You are in the "on demand" frieght business. Its that simple. USA Jet will not be as competitive in the "industry" if it has to deal with a Union, which by the way will not do anything for the pilots there. I am by no way anti-union, just stating the facts as I see them and know first hand. USA Jet is not a major airline, so dont try to make it that. Sometimes it just boils down to Nature of the Beast. I always found that at USA Jet if you just go out and do your job (and do it well) you will not have any problems. Sure, you may not always make it home all the time, but use that to your advantage and put some extra money in your pocket.
Not trying to flame anyone here at all, but I just hate to see a good company go down the tubes.

 

[pilotyip]

where is the dues letter?

Hey Spencer, where is the letter you were going to get from the Int'l stating in writing, that your dues will be on base salary only, The UAW constitution says it will be 2 hours a month of your hourly pay. Stand by guys, that is about 2.5% of your base pay.
Again Spencer made promises he can not deliver. As a former union member, I have been there and done that, it is not a bed of roses.

 

[Spencer]

Where is the 10 hour increase in pay we were supposed to get. That was in writing from the company.

Does it really make sense to anyone that we would pay more twice what any UAW worker making our salary would. I can't beleive that anyone would think that we would have to pay 200 a month for union dues. Ask any airline or UAW worker and find out what their dues are. I have.

Here's the real math. If you make $5000 a month they divide that by 160 hours (normal hourly employee work month). That gives you 31.25/hour times 2 equals 62.50/month. Those are the dues.

If you think about it if you wanted to figure our actual hourly rate would be even lower because we are on duty from when we leave til we get back, we just don't get paid for it.

If you have doubts, call the UAW. You can get it straight from the horses mouth.

 

[pilotyip]

Still no letter

You are deflecting, you said you were going to produce a letter, no letter yet,

 

[Spencer]

Well you should have gotten your letter from the UAW today explaining what the dues are. I was mistaken on how they calculate it. It is 1.15% of your annual base salary. So for my example 5000/mth = 60,000 X 1.15% = 900/year or $75 dollars/mth. Not the 240/mth the company was quoting.

Sorry for the delay in getting that info out. Just takes time.

So where's that 10 hours the company promised us this summer?

 

[pilotyip]

I voted today

I voted against paying dues, OBTW is it signed by an Int'l officer?

 

[Spencer]

If it was signed then you would want it signed by the President of the UAW not the Regional president. Then that wouldn't be good enough unless it was notorized. Then we would have to actually witness it ourselves and maybe do dna testing so we know for sure it's really him.

I have a letter signed by the CEO of the company in 1997 and you see where that got us. The UAW has done everthing they have promised. The company on the other hand hasn't made good on promises from 97, 98, 99 etc... I gotta beleive the UAW.

 

[pilotyip]

deflection again

Check the previous posts, many things have changed at USA Jet since 1997, but you don't want to recognize any of that, even thought I posted the changes. You went into different deflections because it does not fit the distortion you are trying to sell. About the 10 hours, no pilot at USA Jet has taken a pay cut, except by biding into a lower paying seat. In spite of unbelievable downward financial pressure in our market, USA Jet never cut the pay of any Capt being bumped back to the F/O list. In 2002 we had 24 DC-9 Capts and 6 F/O's. The company has truly looked out for us, and I am at a loss what a union will do to make this place any better. You are still a used car salesman at heart, and you are selling a lemon.

 

[Spencer]

So you don't call a 50% cut in per diem, loss of layover pay a paycut?