Republic to Operate 12 Embraer E170 Jets for Midwest!

[SoCalAprch]

As a CHQ guy I would be happy to go picket with the Midwest guys if it comes to it. There needs to be communication between the two pilot groups if we want to do anything. ALPA and the IBT need to put down their differences and really work together on this.


A few things I see over here from the majority of our pilots:

1. We don't want to take mainline jobs and put our mainline brothers and sisters on the street. We realize that these are good "career" type jobs that many of us would like to have at some point and it will not better our careers.
2. We don't want other people flying our planes. We fought tooth and nail for that scope and its gonna be a poo storm if it gets messed with.
3. Both Unions were notified of this the same day of the press release so they are getting everything sorted out before making any comments.
4. We want all our furloughs back flying. (See #1 though)
5. Similar to #1 but we don't want to be used as a whipsaw against higher paid Midwest guys.
6. We think this will give us more leverage during our contract negotiations.

Other than that I don't know but don't label our pilot group.

 

[BobDDuck]

You disappoint me, 777. Hopefully you'll realize at some point that airlines going out of business is not good for any of us.

There are WAY too many people out there that think only about themselves...

 

[Bandit_Driver]

There are WAY too many people out there that think only about themselves...

What BobDduck said.

 

[170Homie]

This came from our union last night:

All Republic Airways Pilots,
We wanted to address two pending issues affecting the RAH pilot group:
1) Republic Airways Holdings/Midwest Airlines Air Service Agreement (ASA)

The Union was just as surprised as the pilot group on the recent announcement about the Midwest Airlines ASA. Please see the attached letter from President E.E. Sowell to Republic Airways Holdings CEO Brian Bedford re: the Midwest Airlines ASA and the letter to the ALPA Midwest Airlines MEC expressing our concerns. We have reached out to our brethren at ALPA, and more specifically to the Midwest Airlines MEC Chairman in order to attempt to diminish the potential negative effects for both pilot groups. Pending the receipt of the requested transactional documents, we will be evaluating the legality of this transaction not only in regards to our CBA, but also Midwest Airlines. We will provide additional information as we obtain it either through mass email, postings on www.local747.org, or both.
It should not go unnoticed that the Scope clause in your Collective Bargaining Agreement specifically prevents such a nightmarish scenario as is now happening at Midwest Airlines. Your Scope clause prevents any pilot from any airline from ever taking your flying and using you as a leverage tool, apparently unlike the scope clause negotiated for the Midwest Airlines pilots.
2)Indianapolis Phone System

We wanted to advise you that the phone system at the Indianapolis Office is experiencing technical difficulties. If you need to leave a phone message for your Business Agent Tiffany Moline or Executive Council Chairman Gordon Moore in the interim, please contact the office in
Houston at 281.209.0300.
We will keep you updated on all pending issues.

Fraternally,
E.E. Sowell
President and General Counsel
Teamsters Local 747

 

[Polar742]

It is sad that RAH is being used to help break the Midwest pilots. I would love to see the RAH pilot stand up for another pilot group and not fly it. But their track record for standing up for another pilot group says something else.

It's kind of ironic that Midwest pilots may fly RAH airplanes. Got to love Karma.

The race to the bottom continues.

BanditDriver,

I am not sure when you worked for Shuttle America, so in defense of myself, as well as others that were there at the time, I felt I should write a response to your swiping post.

We should not forget history. I'm sorry the arbitrator came out with a decision that hurt everyone so bad. Lashing out without what appear to be all the facts doesn't help anyone.

We all know the facts that BanditDriver posted are correct, but without backstory and added meaning and a timeline, are misleading.

Shuttle America was founded in 1998 as a Dash 8 airline flying in mostly upstate New York.

In 2001, as like all other airlines, Shuttle America fell upon hard times, at which point they were bought by Wexford, the sole owners of Chautauqua Airlines. Wexford was determined to spin off Chauatuauqua into an IPO as Republic Airways Holdings. In order to "polish up" the fleet and make it all jet, they transferred all of Chautauqua's SAABs to Shuttle America, and FIRED all of Chautauqua's probationary FOs the flew the SAAB. Some were even fired out of seniority order.

If one reviews the IPO prospectus, and the agreements signed with Shuttle America, you'll see that the leases were directly transferred to another entity owned by the same parent company.

As time went on, and leases expired, other airplanes were brought in to maintain the operation. However, to be fair, all of Shuttle's intial SAABs came from Chautauqua and cost pilot jobs. Even some of the pilots hired to fly the SAABs were the individuals fired from CHQ.

Then come around to EJet time. The clock was ticking, and the fines from AMR were getting expensive. RAH management was failing at getting RW certified, as the FAA kept changing the rules, and RAH wasn't playing the game right. Wexford "magically" borkered a deal where RAH would "assume" the debt of S5 (which were the leases transferred over to S5 in 2001) to obtain the certificate.

The RAH CBA stated that any airline that was controlled by the parent would have flying performed by the members of the master seniority list.

Further, as RAH rapidly placed the SAABs out of service, no "original" S5 airplanes were available for the pilots to be fenced into. In fact, the initial EJets that transferred to the S5 certificate were on the CHQ certificate.

The above facts are all available to be proven via SEC documentation.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Doesn't it bother you RAH guys that the IBT sends you letters from your attorney instead of from your EXCO? Don't you want your fellow pilots communicating with you instead?

I know it's off topic, but I just can't help but think of how annoying it must be to have a damned attorney talking to you about such a situation instead of your elected reps.

 

[Seggy]

There are WAY too many people out there that think only about themselves...

I am large and in charge...

 

[BobDDuck]

See, we have no way of knowing if that is really the case or it's just that all the hair makes you look big.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

See, we have no way of knowing if that is really the case or it's just that all the hair makes you look big.

Ask yourself. . .do anyone of us really want to know. . .?

 

[Bandit_Driver]

A lot of what you said happened before I was on property. I also do remember that S5's contract said that any plane on the S5 certifcate will be flown by a S5 pilot. I also remember the seniority list integration was going ok up until the point CHQ was allowed to fly on S5's certificate. The talks then quickly turned to staple.

 

[Kingairer]

:yeahthat: What he said.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

And some need to move on...

ANyways, so midwest's deal was the best care in the air...we'll how are they going to give better care in the air when pax are only flying on a mainline airplane a small percentage of the time. Whats to keep another airline SW/NW from just throwing more competion their way in the name of Dc9/A320/737s. I dont see how hometown folks are going to be loyal to midwest when its not even midwest! The 76 Seat 170 doesnt even work, its a 70 seater not a 76 seater...Theyll figure that out one voucher at a time.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

The really sad thing is that it will probably be their own former airplanes used against them. Word around here is that a deal will be announced shortly for extremely cheap leases on those 717s from Boeing after they're returned by Midwest. Boeing really doesn't have anyone else who would want them, I would imagine. With the increase in flying out of MKE that we've already been doing, I would bet that some of those airplanes would be positioned in MKE to compete directly against the new replacement jets for Midwest. We'll be using their former airplanes to compete against them if the rumors are correct. Crazy.