Eagle "thrown under the bus"? You decide.

Derg said:
Fellow Pilot,

On September 6, you received a letter from your former MEC Chairman on his final day in office as the EGL MEC Chairman. His letter expressed many concerns, but focused most on recent negotiations at PSA and on ALPA’s response to your company requests for concessions.

I will not respond to his letter point-by-point; however, I feel that it is important for you to understand the Association’s perspective with regards to the future of the regional industry.

It is my belief that our approach should be to always deliberately discuss and understand the world we live in, carefully weigh all the facts and alternatives, and respond thoughtfully and without emotion to ensure that we protect existing work and build career paths for the future of our members.

Today, the Fee-For-Departure (FFD) pilots and their companies are facing intense industry pressure similar to that faced by legacy pilots in the last decade following 9/11. The external factors present during that period resulted in downward modification to collective bargaining agreements. Mainline contracts are returning more closely to an appropriate standard for pay, benefits, work rules and job security provisions.

Prolonged economic downturn, consolidation, high fuel prices, and an increased focus on capacity discipline has led mainlines to constrain affiliate capacity, focus on larger more fuel efficient jets, and reduce the overall costs they pay to FFD carriers. This includes an increased focus on FFD pilot block hour costs. With stagnation in the industry increasing longevity costs at some carriers, there is a wide disparity in pilot block hour costs.

The economic factors listed above, along with an increase to the regulated retirement age, have limited career growth opportunities as well as slowed hiring. This resulted in increased longevity among FFD pilots during the past 10 years. At some airlines — Eagle and Endeavor (formerly Pinnacle), for example — higher average longevity has been one of the biggest cost drivers in those contracts. Pilot longevity also played a huge role in making Comair financially uncompetitive.

While actual Year 15 rates between two carriers may only be as little as 2% apart, one carrier will have much higher average longevity than the other and this longevity component can raise pilot block hour costs from approximately $275 to $350 per hour.

Consider these current realities:

· Mainline carriers are now re-equipping their FFD affiliates where large capital expenditures are needed.

· We are in a bargaining cycle where overcapacity exists and mainline airlines have choices over where to allocate this flying.

· Mainline carriers don't need our help to achieve lower block hour costs; they can achieve this simply by using existing lower cost partners to do the flying.

I’m confident that consolidation at FFD carriers, an improving economic picture, and more fuel efficient and larger jets will improve our negotiating leverage in the next few years. We will again be in a stronger bargaining position in the near future, just like at mainline carriers and like the robust and favorable bargaining during FFD negotiations between 1999 and 2004.

Normal turnover, increased hiring at mainline carriers as a result of increased number of retirements, and new hiring at the regional level, will eventually lower longevity costs. But what do we do in the meantime? We have tough choices to make about how to protect our members’ work at existing carriers, and where necessary, to provide soft landings for pilots at FFD carriers that may not survive rather than force fellow pilots to start over at the bottom of someone else’s seniority list. We also need to continue to pressure the brands to take more responsibility for their affiliates as well.

ALPA pilots have never been afraid of tough choices or hard work to protect our profession. We discuss the issues, weigh the pros and cons, and make decisions that are deliberate and thoughtful rather than emotional.

FFD carrier representatives gathered a few weeks ago and again last week to discuss these issues, and they'll meet again in November to make collective decisions. As always, they will have the support of my office and the Association’s resources to carry out their mission.


Fraternally,

Capt. Lee Moak, President
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I don't think he is throwing anyone under the bus. He is just laying out the state of the airline industry, with particular focus on the FFD segment of the industry.

That said, what I find interesting is that he has a good grasp on the situation, and yet seems clueless as to what to do about it. From my way of thinking, the solution is apparent. Negotiate contracts that do not create economic incentives to shift flying from one carrier to another. One way to do that is to eliminate the multiple year pay scale, or at least tighten it up. Look at the majors. Top of the scale pilot pays only about 10% or so more than bottom of the scale. Contrast that with the FFD segment, where the difference is 50% or more.

Everyone wants to work for a "good" airline. The problem is that "good" airlines tend to retain their labor force longer, driving costs up, and increasing the likelihood of getting dropped by their major partner. Meanwhile, the "Bad" airlines proliferate until their performance suffers, then they get dropped for poor performance, only to get picked up again later when the competition's costs get too high.

I think ALPA's main problem is that the industry has changed dramatically over the course of decades, but ALPA hasn't. They keep trying to do "business as usual" in an industry that where there is no longer any such thing.
 
I read this WHOLE thread, and I have one question.


Everyone keeps talking about how Eagle turned down the concessions, and now PSA needs to do the same.... but I seem to recall Eagle voting in a round of concessions not too long ago? Am I that far off, or is the collective regional airline memory that short?
 
pete2800 said:
I read this WHOLE thread, and I have one question.


Everyone keeps talking about how Eagle turned down the concessions, and now PSA needs to do the same.... but I seem to recall Eagle voting in a round of concessions not too long ago? Am I that far off, or is the collective regional airline memory that short?
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Two different situations. Eagle is under bankruptcy, PSA is not. Not easy to retain a contract with the type of bankruptcy judge that AMR was working with.

Also the first round of negotiations for Eagle were with AMR. The second was with US Air management which in my opinion shouldn't be negotiating contracts until this merger stuff is taken care of with the DOJ.
 
Derg said:
They're printed on our rotations.

Sadly, when one of my fellow coworkers landed themselves in a hill of trouble, some "overly helpful to the media pilot" who leaked a copy of his rotation to CNN, in exchange for something like topless photos of Erin Burnett, ended up publicizing the door codes for a number of airports on worldwide television.
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Good taste. I would have negotiated for Isha Sesay.
 
Maurus said:
Two different situations. Eagle is under bankruptcy, PSA is not. Not easy to retain a contract with the type of bankruptcy judge that AMR was working with.

Also the first round of negotiations for Eagle were with AMR. The second was with US Air management which in my opinion shouldn't be negotiating contracts until this merger stuff is taken care of with the DOJ.
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One of the many reasons that Parker is trying to get these contracts taken care of is to show the DOJ that he has the 'support' of labor to move forward with the merger.
 
mikecweb said:
Show me another way...you can punch me too.
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Well, way to what? A game of musical chairs where if you fail to get a seat you starve to death or wind up at the Home Despot explaining drills to frazzled housewives? *shudder*. I mean, when I was young, the odds didn't matter because obviously I'm better and brighter than everyone else (I mean, that's obvious, isn't it?) But now that I require Mobil 1 High Mileage, I'm happy enough to sit in my little cubicle napping, listening to the radio, waiting for the phone to ring, and eating Tapioca pudding. Shuffleboard, anyone?
 
Boris Badenov said:
Well, way to what? A game of musical chairs where if you fail to get a seat you starve to death or wind up at the Home Despot explaining drills to frazzled housewives? *shudder*. I mean, when I was young, the odds didn't matter because obviously I'm better and brighter than everyone else (I mean, that's obvious, isn't it?) But now that I require Mobil 1 High Mileage, I'm happy enough to sit in my little cubicle napping, listening to the radio, waiting for the phone to ring, and eating Tapioca pudding. Shuffleboard, anyone?
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I wish I was happy with what I have, I won't squirt one but it's probably a dream job for a lot of people. It's not bigger airplanes it's more work rules and "stability". Oh and not answering stupid emails at 6am.
 
Maurus said:
Two different situations. Eagle is under bankruptcy, PSA is not. Not easy to retain a contract with the type of bankruptcy judge that AMR was working with.

Also the first round of negotiations for Eagle were with AMR. The second was with US Air management which in my opinion shouldn't be negotiating contracts until this merger stuff is taken care of with the DOJ.
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Weird... Pinnacle was in bankruptcy too... But for some reason they are the bottom feeders of the industry for it, and Eagle is not.

By the way we are still not the lowest cost operator for Delta.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
JetBlue has an ACARS request that you can send to get the door code of the city you are in. Best use ever for ACARS.

Still, I end up at the top of the JetBridge doing the hand jive a few times a month...
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That's awesome. The door code BS is probably my least favorite part about this job, especially when winter comes around and I'm out on the jetway stairs freezing my nards off.

And why in the hell is the door code required in most places to get IN the jetway. Wouldn't it be more useful if it kept passengers from getting out onto the ramp?
 
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