Colgan's anti Alpa Campaign

v1valarob said:
Or they should be worrying about how they dont have enough working planes in Dulles. They literally did not have enough working planes for the amount of flights last night. The Parkersburg flight did not even leave until 2am.

And after 2 weeks of 309 having the problem of its start relay staying closed and the prop motoring when the batt is turned on, you would think they would rip it all apart and fix it.

Last night these letters actually provided us with humor while we were getting screwed out of at least 4 hours of sleep at the hotel on a stand-up.
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not to hijack the thread, but it helps if the captains would write the stuff up. I don't know how many times last week I heard about a "plane" that was having issues with the right gen. THe gen was never written up until I did a gate return. Their won't be an attempt to fix it until it's written up. As FO's, you guys need to emphasize that you aren't comfortable flying in broken airplanes and that's it's illegal. As Captains, we need to step up and just take the hit and write it up. It sucks losing time off or pay due to a mx cancellation, but nothing will get better until we do it. end of rant, now make sure your buddy votes!
 
dingo222 said:
not to hijack the thread, but it helps if the captains would write the stuff up. I don't know how many times last week I heard about a "plane" that was having issues with the right gen. THe gen was never written up until I did a gate return. Their won't be an attempt to fix it until it's written up. As FO's, you guys need to emphasize that you aren't comfortable flying in broken airplanes and that's it's illegal. As Captains, we need to step up and just take the hit and write it up. It sucks losing time off or pay due to a mx cancellation, but nothing will get better until we do it. end of rant, now make sure your buddy votes!
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Le Sigh. Carrying Mel's.

Please listen to dingo, guys, write it up.
 
v1valarob said:
Or they should be worrying about how they dont have enough working planes in Dulles. They literally did not have enough working planes for the amount of flights last night. The Parkersburg flight did not even leave until 2am.
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Crap like this is NOT a new trend.

Like it's said below, sure, it sucks to lose pay to a MX cancellation.

... hey, wait.. if you had guaranteed cancellation pay per your CBA, you wouldn't have to fear retribution or loss of pay if you write something up.

Not paying pilots who make legitimate maintenance write-ups is a backdoor form of pilot pushing.

You know what to do. Make sure your friends are on board.
 
Firebird2XC said:
Crap like this is NOT a new trend.

Like it's said below, sure, it sucks to lose pay to a MX cancellation.

... hey, wait.. if you had guaranteed cancellation pay per your CBA, you wouldn't have to fear retribution or loss of pay if you write something up.

Not paying pilots who make legitimate maintenance write-ups is a backdoor form of pilot pushing.

You know what to do. Make sure your friends are on board.
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backdoor = frontdoor.
 
it's not nasty or what you think. IT's actually an equation on how to get fubared. Pythagoras meets osmosis meets colgan meets faa = trouble usually. crystal, right?????
 
v1valarob said:
Or they should be worrying about how they dont have enough working planes in Dulles. They literally did not have enough working planes for the amount of flights last night. The Parkersburg flight did not even leave until 2am.

And after 2 weeks of 309 having the problem of its start relay staying closed and the prop motoring when the batt is turned on, you would think they would rip it all apart and fix it.

Last night these letters actually provided us with humor while we were getting screwed out of at least 4 hours of sleep at the hotel on a stand-up.
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Very common problem. Happens often on the PX's. It's a bad PDU.
 
We had a P2P conference call the other night, and this came up. At the time, I didn't even know the letter existed, so while SE was giving us the PCL MEC's take on it, I was reading it. Flabbergasted is about all I can come up with.

Colgan guys, I'm gonna be honest. We're protecting ourselves. That being said, we want to secure growth at BOTH sides of the company. It would be remiss in their duties for the PCL MEC to roll over and let a scope clause that allows PCL Holdings to farm our flying over to Colgan make it into a TA. However, we're not looking to poach Colgan's flying either. IF there winds up being a seniority list integrations, a staple isn't even a realistic possibility. Allegheny/Mowhawk prevents that, and voting in ALPA would give the Colgan guys even MORE say at the table during a seniority integration. Management's already shown some cards in that direction. They're shopping for more office space in MEM (and being offered a pretty substantial tax breaks by the city on top of that) in order to move the Colgan offices down here. Every time we've talked integration with the MEC, the word "fences" was ALWAYS used. So, don't think that if the lists are integrated a junior FO in DTW is gonna swoop in and grab a Q upgrade slot from a Colgan FO. Odds are slim to none of that happening.

Bottom line, we're trying to protect our pilots, but we're NOT trying to do it at the expense of the Colgan pilot group. But like has already been said, the company won't really even talk scope at the table right now.....
 
So apparently if we elect ALPA, all future aircraft will not be flown by Colgan Pilots. This is from Buddy. Why would this happen? I think it is just management propaganda
 
wick81 said:
So apparently if we elect ALPA, all future aircraft will not be flown by Colgan Pilots. This is from Buddy. Why would this happen? I think it is just management propaganda
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Of course it is. Scare tactics, pure and simple. Look, if they buy more Q400s do you really believe that Pinnicle is going to set up a Q400 training program?

Of course they won't.

At the worst, if the companies are combined, the Seniority Lists will be combined. Then all vacancies will be filled with system seniority bids. With any normal SLI you'll be in the same relative position and will then have an equal shot at flying Pinnacle jets as Colgan Qs.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
 
Of course it's a lie wick!

The Pinnacle Pilot cannot force a merger! That lies SOLELY with Phil Trenary. He won't want a huge pilot group, both represented by ALPA.

Let me give you all some background info on Senator Colgan.

In the 90's he let a bricklayers union in Manassas use the hangar for meetings and protests, etc. He has voted with LABOR and unions in Virginia 80% of the time.

However when his own pilots tried to unionize in the 90's he fought tooth an nail to keep it off property.

Once again- we got ANOTHER letter from Harry Mitchell now!! Crazy.
 
Another thing I think we should realize is that if and when we vote in ALPA there is going to be a substantial amount of time before anything happens.

A Contract

Seniority List Integration

Decent Pay....etc

Most of us will probably be gone from Colgan at the point that things actually get better. In the meantime we'll keep getting our time. The FO's that are FO's right now will still have one of the quickest upgrades in the industry.

We'll pay the dues but won't receive the benefits for a couple of years, that's fine though. The contract that eventually does happen will probably lead to higher pay at our next job. Simply because there will be one less bottom feeder paying unlivable wages out there. We as a nation wide pilot group are only as strong as our weakest members. Hopefully we'll prevent future FO from having to live on $1200.00 a month like I did.
 
Yeah, it's been relatively quite from management, thus far. Although, they are certainly ramping up the slur campaign rapidly now the vote is here.

PLEASE, PLEASE people, do not fall victim to the lies/ scare tactics being spread by mgmt. We are going to be blasted with this garbage for the next three weeks. Do yourself a favor, vote in favor of ALPA the day you get your card from the NMB.


The new letters are comical. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
I feel like I am in a time warp back about 16-17 months ago prior to the last election. Most of it is quite pathetic, and is direct conflict with the "feel-good" pep talks from management that you hear at meetings, conference calls, etc... We simply don't get it at our level of operation as line pilots and never will in the eyes of those more astute in the front office. I have become firmly convinced that you have to have the mentality that you would sell your soul to be a manager in the airline business. Even more so, if one decided to work in flight operations managment.
Tracing back our steps a few short months ago, I speculated that the company would either fail to recognize that we had a very divided pilot group or that they flat-out didn't care. This assessment is very difficult to quantify, because I think that there is a little bit of both of those sentiments depending upon who you speak with.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing a unionized pilot group is going to be the NMB, and approval for a strike vote. A strike is really the only powerful tool that labor can wield against management, and unless or until the NMB releases a pilot group to strike management has the upper hand in any contract negotiations.
A strike goes counter to just about every bone in my body, HOWEVER, it may indeed come to that someday. I believe firmly that PNCL Holdings, Inc. fears united and resolute CJC/Pinnacle Airlines pilot group(s). Pinnacle and Colgan pilots have to do what is good for the long term in the situation that we face with both industry and market forces. Management doesn't want to loose the control that it has to have complete control over pilot group at CJC. At the moment, it's pretty much what the FAA regs state and company policy (subject to change). For me personally, it just frustrates and aggravates the hell out of me to no end the things I've witnessed over the past 22 months since the sale of the company to Pinnacle Holdings. Sure, I complained about being "Colganized" at times before, but by and large I was happy with my gig flying the 1900 in BKW and being home more than half the month. The Colgan family has been VERY good to me throughout my own personal situation, and I am indebted to them for that on a personal level. The Colgan family is a good, and decent family that never expected anything more than what they also gave in time and service to the airline.
Life is now forever changing at "Colgan Air", and we are "Colgan Air" in name only. In fact, I wish that thay would just stop calling it Colgan. It's not Colgan Air in my mind, it's something I can't even put a name on. It's filled with an over abundance of underqualified middle and senior managment thats blinded by their own egoes and personal agenda. I have no such ambition, except to be a professional airline pilot with the respect of my peers. That alone is worth more than my paycheck, at least coming from my previous military flying background. At least there I could look at my leaders, and see men that were sharing the same adversity, same risks, same rewards and serving our country together for a higher purpose. We don't live in that world, but we can damned sure hold our heads high if we go out and do the job to the best of our ability EVERY time we strap on an airplane. I have no time for petty retributions, insulting memorandums about union organization and disrespect to my profession.
OK, I am off my soapbox now...

Regards,

ex-Navy Rotorhead
 
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