I was never pay to play. Where does this ignorance come from? The only pay to play airline pilot programs that existed were Gulfstream and CAT in which you paid money to sit right seat in a Beech 1900 or a B727. I did nothing of the sort. I paid for some ground school and sim time in a building somewhere in Florida and got an interview through it from 9E. This training was not in a real airplane, this training did not result in a job loss, nor one less job for any pilot out there. At 9E, I interviewed like any other pilot and my interview was the same one you had done 18 months earlier at that point in time. It's literally no different than if 9E came to Skymates and said hey we want to interview your pilots.
When I started at 9E, the pay couldn't go any lower than what it already was. In late 2007 it was already the lowest pay for any CRJ airline. As for MY worth, 9E management had already decided that they needed to pay 1st and 2nd year FOs more money in order to stem attrition. The 9E union turned it down for "unity" and the "greater good" and for leverage purposes, which of course backfired with Age 65 and the great recession. This is what I mean by I should be able to negotiate my own terms. Clearly, the airline wanted to pay more for 1st year FOs and 2nd year FOs and it was actually a decent amount more, about $4/hr more 1st year and about $7/hr more 2nd year. But the union turned it down, and we were left with 20.73/hr and 24.39/hr. Now true, that's what we signed up for. But a direct negotiation with management I would gotten a higher wage by accepting what they offered. Why should I string along the plans for some 9E lifers on the union, who may or may not have my best interest in mind? Did I have any faith in them that they would secure a new contract any time soon? Of course not. And as 9E recently proved, it's all about me me me in terms of pay and job security because as they so eloquently put it, "you aren't paying my mortgage and bills nor putting food on the table." So if each individually can vote, they will vote for what's best for THEM and their families. In my 4.5 yrs at 9E, a payraise for my 1st and 2nd yr was in my best interest and represented nearly half my time there. Not to harp too much on history, but then there was that fiasco with TA1 and getting a bonus distribution method of highest W2 wages which pretty much screwed all FOs considering this same union was the one that turned down the wage increase for FOs. I understand it was for leverage, but it failed. Surely the union should have recognized that they screwed up and then not attempt to tie the bonus method to W2 (which mine were obviously lower with the ALPA contract rate instead of company proposed rate for 2 years). That of course blew up in their face when TA1 was voted down.
Now I could go on about other issues, but then I'll get a "you need to let it go" lecture along with "you're an angry man" so why bother. Me take a step back? I have used facts to try and prove my case while others here (namely DE727, Seggy, and ATNPilot) all harp over JetU the second I write just about anything on this forum. Even if there is no relevance. See my photo in the 'Pictures from the Road' thread in which I posted a picture of an inflight display of a great jetstream tailwind with a good groundspeed, and the first thing DE727 writes is, "Wasn't that the "be all you can be" link at the Jet U website back in the day?" Absolutely no relevance whatsoever and pretty sad considering it's coming from a grown up man. The flow diagram literally looks like "If CC writes something......" "No - no action" "Yes - Insert JetU and/or non-union airline jabs even though it's totally irrelevant."
