Colgan ALPA ?

Airdale said:
I just sat in Boston for 6 hours last week because crew scheduling can't pull their head out you know where. I was supposed to block 7hrs, and get paid for it. Instead I sat at the airport for 6hrs and only flew............. I can't "tough" this out for a long period of time.
Click to expand...


Hah! Beat this!

Flew my first leg to Boston, then gave up my airplane to another crew. The mechanics worked on their old/our new airplane as fast as they could.

Our first Islip turn was cancelled. No shocker.

The second turn came and went without us flying.. okay.

Then, around midnight, dispatch still has us holding on waiting to fly our last leg back to Albany.

At some point after midnight, the gate supervisor informed us that there were small children sleeping on the terminal floor. She sent all our passengers to a hotel. She sent all her personnel home- gate agents, ramp agents, everybody.

At this point, she's on the phone with our dispatch saying 'why don't you cancel this.. there's nobody here to work the flight!"

Dispatch's concept? We're going to get the airplane to the gate, and the crew will fly back empty. WE'LL RUN IT AS A REVENUE FLIGHT FOR COMPLETION.

I arrived in Boston sometime around 12 pm. It wasn't until my captain cited 'physiological needs' after 2 AM that the dispatchers finally caved.

We arrived at a hotel around 3 am. After minimum rest, and without fresh clothes or toiletries, we flew back to Albany. For those of you wondering, this was not a planned overnight, which is the norm for Colgan.

I'm not even sure what I was paid for this, but I'd wager Guantanamo Bay detainees get better treatment. We were entirely at the mercy of the company and the company had clearly lost its mind.

At what point do you say "This isn't good customer service.." and "we're killing our employees for nothing" ?
 
PCL_128 said:
Did you vote "yes" for ALPA? With treatment like that, I certainly hope so.
Click to expand...


Vote yes? I voted 'yes' with my phone on speaker phone, in front of a member of the OC. THAT incidient in Boston happened after I voted, either way.

There are numerous other incidents.

I spent my hours in Boston reading 'Flying The Line'. If others who voted No or didn't vote had read that, they'd have voted yes. I think that'd be the goal for the next union drive.

I think the real problem with the union drive was the same one I saw in the Army when I was in Korea. Korea is a year tour, and most folks hate the units there and just can't wait to leave. (Korea itself is a pretty cool country.) Either way, everybody spends the year bitching and counting (literally) the days until they leave but nobody does anything to improve things.


This is the mindset we're dealing with.

I still wear my ALPA lanyard, btw.
 
I think one of the important parts of union representation for Colgan was "M&A" and 'fragmentation' language.

M&A = Merger's an acquisitions and what happens to the planes and pilots when/if it happens.

Fragmentation = if Colgan is purchased and the acquiring entity decides to 'fragment', move or sell off parts of the operation, what happens with the pilots.

Since they were purchased by a union-based carrier, Colgan has pretty much zero protection/zero leverage for whatever they want to do with the airline.

Legally, they can keep the certificate, lay off 100% of their pilots and there is zero recourse.

Certainly that's worst-case scenario, but at least there would be some protection.

"The four" probably didn't care a lot because there are lots of people hiring today, but the music could literally stop monday morning. Anyone remember my speech about musical chairs? :)
 
Let's not forget Pinnacle's early attempts in negotiations to get scope relief from us. They wanted us to give up scope so they could form a non-union carrier under the Pinnacle Corp banner. We were told we could keep all the NWA flying, but new flying would go to the non-union carrier. Of course, our negotiating committee said "Hell no!" What happens? Phil and Co go out and buy Colgan. I doubt they did that just to spend money.

PCL_128 is right. You can't use logic when talking about these guys. If they used logic, we'd have a contract and the company wouldn't be paying millions of dollars to NWA for performance issues. Why? Because they're paying MORE in fines to NWA than we are apart in $$$ over the LIFE of the contract. Essentially, they've spent more this year alone than they would have just saying "Okay, here you go" and giving us what we wanted pay wise for FIVE years. It's turned into an ego deal that management doesn't want to "lose" by giving in. Despite low staffing at Colgan, they'd send planes from us to them just to "teach us a lesson."
 
surreal1221 said:
This profession needs a witch hunt, pronto.

Enough of this nice guy stuff.

Back to old school union tactics.
Click to expand...


Its kind of starting look at what ASA is doing.... Although its not union backed they are sick and tired of being screwed with. Too bad it took 5 years to start
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top