ALPA: It's Time for Regionals To Raise Pay

TWP said:
It simply won't change until people refuse to work, which they won't, because when you are in your early 20s airplanes are really neat.
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I don't think it'll be a refuse to work situation. It'll be a lack of people with ATPs. If you look at the fed's numbers of people getting ATPs it doesn't remotely keep up with demand.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I'm not buying it. Every time some regional pilot has told me that his airline can't find pilots, I ask the MEC chairman and he tells me that it's line pilot myth.
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Which airline is your friend associated with?

It's true at certain carriers with weaker contracts and slow upgrades.

I still have friends at RAH that have told me the SL shrinks every month. Word is, DL wanted to send more flying over but the company flat out said it was impossible for them to staff it.

CommutAir signed an LOA with they're Union in 2014 to increase 1st year pay to $30/hr and buy hotel rooms for commuters to keep people coming in the door.

Other airlines that have quicker upgrades (Mesa) or better contracts (AirWhiskey and XJ) have faired a bit better. Although, a friend of mine at Whiskey recently said "even if AA wanted to give us more flying, we can barely keep up with attrition as it is." Again, AW actually has a decent contract. I didn't even mention the bonuses...

Supply vs. demand.
 
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Boris Badenov said:
This fantasy that "regionals" are anything other than an indentured servitude pyramid-scheme really needs to die. What will it take? A wooden stake? Silver bullet? Sunlight?
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Shiny jets.

Regardless of what regionals are or aren't, or how bad they can be shown to be. People have, do now, and still will, work there. And I don't think that's going to change in any way, in my opinion. *shrug* For whatever they are, they're still the best chance to mainline, it seems. At least civilian route. And that's their lure.
 
Vector said:
Don't they get taxed higher anyway?
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No. They take out the amount of taxes as if that were your annual salary, so it may be in the higher bracket for that one check. BUT if you aren't actually in that higher bracket, you get the money that was taken out back when you file taxes. (The difference between your bracket and the higher bracket.)
 
Mark815 said:
This is almost exactly what was said in my new hire ground school during indoc. I, and others were very pissed off by the attitude.

An Asst. CP came in to talk to us, when somebody asked about pay raises, he stopped, looked around the room and said "Well this room is pretty full now isn't it? I don't see any reason here to raise pay."

It's attitudes like that which prevent me from having an ounce of compassion for any of these regionals, even the one I work for. I'm getting some great experience, but the moment I can move on to greener pastures I'm out.
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I'm not sure why that makes you angry. It's Capitalism. Market forces play a large part in pilot compensation. Management is not doing their job if they pay more than the market demands, keeping in mind that unions create artificial market forces.

It's funny to me that so many pilots are die-hard Republicans who defend "Capitalism" to the death...except when it isn't in their favor.

(We aren't in a true free market, but you know what I mean.)
 
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I'm really concerned about one of the company's negotiators. I've dealt with him before, and he is absolutely vindictive. He is the type that would intentionally not make a deal because it is too nice to the pilot group. We need deal makers on both sides, not jerks who are out to screw the pilots for voting in a union.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I'm not buying it. Every time some regional pilot has told me that his airline can't find pilots, I ask the MEC chairman and he tells me that it's line pilot myth.
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Now I can only speak for C5, but even the LOA isn't attracting people, we had 2 people in our latest new hire class. Captains are being sucked up around 4/5 a month(which is a lot when you are as small as we are). The company stated they want a SL of around 220-230, and we are hovering around 190. Between the captain attrition and FOs jumping, if they don't act soon they will be in trouble.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
I'm really concerned about one of the company's negotiators. I've dealt with him before, and he is absolutely vindictive. He is the type that would intentionally not make a deal because it is too nice to the pilot group. We need deal makers on both sides, not jerks who are out to screw the pilots for voting in a union.
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In the big scheme of things, these guys surface and exist when times and trends are generally in management's favor. In the regional industry, that' s pretty much been forever.

When things get tight for management, they can't tolerate this type, because things don't get done. That's when the true "leaders" surface and realize they need to pay a living wage and things can move forward.

However, understand this usually only happens when the company is in "survival mode".

The pay at the regionals has been stagnant for decades now, and those outfits had been riding on the coattails of the major airline compensation as motivators. While it is a "compensation problem", it is industry wide, and not focused solely at the regionals.

The long term prospects in this industry have changed, and the rewards that motivated the civilian track pilots no longer exist. In fact, even if they did, I'm not sure the current demographics and culture in the US would respond in kind. The motivations and goals of Millennial's, IMHO, are different than what I've seen in the past, and I'm not sure the lifestyle is compatible with their goals.

Richman
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
Ok. How about this, "The Devil's greatest trick is convincing people he doesn't exist."

#lovethatmovie
#whyamihashtagging
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If you're quoting The Usual Suspects, at least get the quote correct.

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

#greatmovie
 
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