Well, certainly from a business perspective, it makes absolute sense! If people are willing to do the job for peanuts, it makes sense not to pay them in caviar! Certainly can't blame Mesa the company for trying to make as much of a buck as possible.
My stitch is, at what point will the labor groups at Mesa stand up and say "enough of this"? Ornstein is no idiot. By keeping his pay rediculously low, his turnover is (well, was) incredibly high. In the hey-day before late summer 2001, you'd be amazed to find a Mesa pilot with over 3 years seniority. No one stood up and fought for a fair contract because they're going to be gone in a few years anyway.
Now suddenly, there's alot less upward movement, so now these guys are starting to realize that something needed to be done. Only problem is, while they were just "mustering through" to get to the greener pasture, a monster was being created. It was finally unleashed on them when the contract negotiations started. Suddenly, CCAir and Mesa were placed gun barrel to gun barrel and the whipsawing began. CCAir attempted to stand up to it and JO's response was basically "shut 'er down". The CCAir guys realized a bit too late that they were just a pawn to try to get the Mesa guys rattled, since their contract was comming up too.
So CCAir, having served its purpose, was uncerimoniously canned, streeting a bunch of people who promptly put additional pressure on the Mesa guys. Mesa, meanwhile, wanting to increase its revenue and fleet flexibility, wanted to put CRJ700's on the ticket. Trouble was the USAir scope clause allegedly prevented them from operating CRJ700's for USAir, with Duane Woerth at one point stating "A 70 seat airplane is no regional jet" (and I can't really blame him drawing a line in the sand... Like I said before, where does the RJ end and a mainline jet begin?). Somehow, either out of misinterpretation or creative interpretation (my money on the latter) this came out as "Mesa can't be flying CRJ700's period".
"No problem" things Mr. Ornstein the cunning businessman, and before you can say whipsaw, out of the sands in Phoenix arose Freedom Airlines, complete with shiney new CRJ700s and a pilot group represented by... no one.
Mesa pilots, seeing their new flying and their new airplanes going to this alter-ego non-union shop, went berzerk, but again, it was too late. The negotiations went from trying to improve the Mesa pilots quality of life to getting rid of that damnable Freedom Airlines, but it was like trying to chop down a mountain with the edge of your hand. Put up a fight, and all the new flying (and a fair amount of the old flying) would go to Freedom. Not a very strong good negotiating position at all. Then, in the middle of this whole deal, USAir modifies the scope clause and allows 70 seaters on the property.
Now, facing losing all the new USAir flying and Jets 4 Jobs deal to Freedom, the Mesa guys were ready to give their right nut and first born to see Freedom go away. Completely gone from the negotiation sessions were any attempt to improve quality of life. A perfect time for Ornstein to have a "momentary loss of reasoning" and, in a "fit of rage", blurt out the very thing Mesa pilots wanted; the elimination of Freedom and the integration of all Mesa arms into one contract, allowing CCAir pilots a chance to get back to work. They quickly signed up for this, and then after the dust settled, took the time to actually read the contract.
Freedom was indeed gone... But so too was any hope for a decent quality of life, especially if you were a turboprop F/O, a majority of who's crashpads were now located in the employee parking lot. F/Os were seatlocked for long periods of time, and were prevented from bidding F/O to F/O positions. If they wanted the jet (and the meager quality of life improvement the offer) they either wait until they can bid jet captain, or they bid TP captain, which still eliminates their opportunity to bid jet F/O, and now they have to wait until they can hold Jet Captain, where they work a reserve line until Jesus walks the Earth again.
Move days were elimiated. Yes, now if you are awarded a new domicile, you get... wait for it... ZERO days of move time. You finish your last day at CLT, and you start your next line in PHX in 12 hours. Good luck getting there. To complicate this further, remember those Freedom guys? Well, seems the ALPA boys don't like them all that well. Trouble is, now that they've been assimilated into the Mesa collective, you can't tell who's a Freedomite and who isn't anymore. They all wear Mesa badges. To alot of ALPA hardliners, this black flags all Mesa guys. So that jumpseat you were hoping to hop to get to work the next day might just remain empty.
So, the Mesa guys got a "take it or walk" deal, and, seeing the debris field that used to be CCAir, they folded. When faced with the tough decision to do what was right for the industry vs. what was right for them, they looked out for number one. Is it disappointing? You bet. But what would you have done?
I'm mad, no doubt about it. But who do you blame? Mesa? ALPA? George Dub-yuh? Spacemen from the planet Whatitis? Who knows... But welcome to Capitolism, boys. If people are willing to do something for nothing, don't expect that a business bent on profitability will turn down such an offer!
Can you imagine how different things would be if not one pilot signed up to work for Freedom? Now, THAT, my friends, is what a brotherhood is, and make no mistake about it. Pilots need to support one another for the greater good of the profession. Until this happens, expect worstening working conditions and lower pay and benefits.
Paul
