Greetings fellow MESA Pilots,
I apologize in advance for such a long post. I'm going to give you a little MESA ALPA negotiation history and my opinion of this TA and hopefully persuade some of you to agree. I've been driven to respond due to some comments made on this forum and others. Let me introduce myself so that you know where I'm coming from:
I'm a relatively senior MESA Captain and this will be my first posting on any forum. I'm just your average under-the-radar line pilot. By senior I mean I arrived at MESA at about the same time JO arrived. I started in the "Mighty Beech 1900D Airliner", experienced 9/11, suffered through the last contract negotiations and the Freedom A fiasco, etc...etc. I stay out of trouble and politics. I was always on the MESA certificate. I've never held an ALPA position. For those of you wondering why I'm still here, the only thing I can say is that I have a lot of freinds who got their dream airline/corporate/cargo job and are now "working at Home Depot" as the saying goes. I've made some attempts at leaving but always hesitated at the last minute. Financially the decision to stay has been good. Personally it has been a huge sacrifice. (I wish others on these forums had the courage to give a brief description of themselves as well. I usually stay away from these forums because of all the anonymous tough guys, ha!). I've kept quiet so far and reserved my opinion until the TA was available for review.
During the last negotiations I personally learned a lot about how these things work. I see some of the same misunderstandings, frustrations, and questions as last time. Most if this is due to our MEC doing a poor job educating the pilot group about the intracacies of a contract negotiation. In defense of the MEC and the Negotiating Committee, a lot of the confusion is caused by the nature of the Railway Labor Act. It is a very restrictive law that severely limits the actions of our MEC and Negotiating Committee. They are bound by law and can't tell you that there are certain things they can't tell you, get it? They are currently doing the best they can under the present laws. All of their actions can be used against them "in a court of law" if it came to that. The arbitration judge is an appointee. Some times they lean towards labor in their decisions but in the last eight years they have not. If it gets to that point where a judge is involved our MEC and Neg. Comm. has to have a clean record. The judge is also supposed to take into account the actions of management during these negotiations.
Now for my opinion of this TA. During the last negotiations management had us up against the wall. It was just after 9/11. The Bush administration told the arbitrators that there would be no strikes indefinately due to "national emergency", Freedom A was receiving two shiny new CRJ900's with full crew every six weeks, there were massive furloughs throughout the industry, the CCAir certificate was purchased, shelved and the CCAir pilots were kicked to the curb. We were being replaced by "street pilots" with no recourse, so when the opportunity to scope out alter-ego flying and bring in the CCAir pilots presented itself we as a pilot group voted to continue the current contract WITH NO CONCESSIONS. At the time we felt it was the best thing to do to preserve ALPA flying at MAG and all the other regionals. Believe me, the other regional managements were watching very closely. They follow each others lead as far as anti-labor strategies and tactics. We were being told by ALPA at the time that we were saving ALPA at the regionals. We were under a lot of pressure to "take one for the team" meaning all of the regional ALPA pilots. There were other regional pilot groups at the time talking about separating from ALPA (you know who your are). We MESA guys naively thought we would be recieved as heros by all the other ALPA pilots. We conquerd an alter-ego, aquired the best scope language in the industry, saved the CCAir pilots jobs and gave managements throughout the industry a reason to change their strategy. Under the circumstances we were lucky to keep our jobs. If we had failed MESA would be non-union, TranStates was scheduled to be next and there were others to follow. A few years later GOJets pops up on radar. I personally had the option of going to Freedom A, turned it down and remained in the right seat of the CRJ for two years while "others" off the street and junior to me became 900 Captains. So those of you out there asking "you should have gone on strike" and "you guys are dragging the industry down" should educate yourselves and think about what you are saying. Go research some ALPA history and learn the word whip-saw. Oh and the 20 year old pilot from another ALPA regional who called me a "scab", go to hell.
Now for this TA. This is a NEGOTIATION. During the last negotiation we collectively said "NEVER AGAIN". We all vowed to fight like hell and get at least an industry standard contract. Well here we are and more than half our pilot group is new and has no idea what this negotiation entails. Some of the guys I fly with were 16 years old during the last one and have zero knowledge of the railway labor act. I get guys who have been here a year asking, "what are dues?", and "why do we even need a union?" When I ask them if they would like to be on reserve the rest of their career and have someone junior to them get an upgrade out of seniority in front of them, or have the company cancel your vacation, etc, etc. They say, "they can't do that." This what prompted this long winded post.
To sum it up this TA is a huge disappointment. I know MESA is in trouble but I personally have reached the point where I would rather "work at Home Depot" than accept this slap in the face of an agreement. After all these years of knowing exactly what needs to be changed in our contract we get this thing.
PBS works great IF YOU ARE STAFFED properly and management keeps their hands off. We need a staffing clause.
Two more days off a year for line holders? Is this what I waited all these years for? 0.16 more days off a month.
Two hour check in. What, to be JA'd? Am I in high school?
Where is trip/duty rigs? This is what we vowed we would get last time.
After reading the new TA I can find no reason to accept it. It is actually insulting. I know we are going to be told that the airline industry is in turmoil and MESA may soon go bankrupt so we better accept. I've heard that one before and now I'm called a "bottom feeder" by strangers walking through the terminal. I now say, "so what?" Let's send it back with a 100% NO Vote. They'll either come back with something substantial or we strike. I don't say this lightly: If it drives us into bankruptcy then good riddance. We are heading that way anyway with or without a better contract. I don't want to see another generation of pilots sacrificed for nothing. For those of you young guys thinking "1000 hours of PIC and I'm out of here so what do I care" be careful, odds are you'll be here a little longer than that and you'll eventually want a life other than working your ass off.
Until I see a staffing clause and many more minimum days off then you can expect a NO vote from me. Let's send a message to these clowns. We don't want to work under these conditions any more, period.
Thanks and Good Luck