Message from Ben
Spirit Pilots,
Thank you for your numerous e-mails and calls over the last couple days. You have a lot of good questions and I understand why you want a full understanding of the negotiations and the final offer made by the company. The most frequently asked questions are addressed below.
1.
Is the Company’s last offer still on the table?
Unfortunately, no. We have to be practical about the situation we find ourselves in at this time. The Company is losing millions of dollars during the strike and our ability to pay the rates in the final offer is being weakened by the hour. We are still committed to getting a fair and equitable deal, but we are a small company and are incurring a lot of expenses while losing a great deal of revenue during this strike.
2. Why did Spirit management walk away from the negotiation and say they would accept a strike?
Spirit did not walk away from the negotiations. Our proposal was the last one on the table and ALPA rejected it. Spirit stayed at the table, was not interested in taking a strike and remains today ready to negotiate a fair and equitable deal for all parties.
3. Why didn’t ALPA send the last proposal out to the membership for a vote?
That was ALPA’s choice, not the Company’s. The deal we offered was worked through with the ALPA Negotiating Committee and the result was one that we felt addressed everyone’s concerns and objectives fairly and realistically.
4. Why do you think there’s an ALPA national agenda influencing these negotiations?
There are three reasons for this. First, ALPA national appeared to heavily influence the pilots’ side of the negotiation in the final hours that lead to the strike decision. Second, Captain Prater has on a couple of occasions referred to the Spirit pilots as the “tip of the spear,” a clear reference to the fact that our negotiation serves the purpose of several other upcoming pilot negotiations at larger carriers. Lastly, and most importantly, Captain Creed stated as such in the ALPA release on the strike, when he said: “This contract is not just for the pilots who currently fly for Spirit, right now. We have a responsibility to maintain our profession and pass down a legacy of a job worth having.” If this doesn’t mean that we are being driven by interests outside of Spirit, what does it mean?
5. Shouldn’t we be paid like Jetblue or Airtran – we fly the same equipment to the same airports, right?
Parity is more than just current wage rates. Neither Jetblue nor Airtran paid close to what we had offered when they had 31 aircraft, adjusted for inflation. In addition, they have more productive scheduling rules, and neither have the four-day off provision. More importantly, these carriers are four times our size and have a larger revenue base on which to pay higher pilot salaries. They can leverage a larger network to achieve efficiencies that Spirit cannot. Our proposal reached Airtran scales at DOS+2. This gave the Company time to add aircraft that will produce the revenue base that would allow us to pay the higher rate.
6.Why are we seeing different compensation figures, i.e. 26%, 30%, 47%, etc.?
We offered a weighted “nominal” pay rate increase of 26% over the five year term of our proposal. Nominal means just adding up the percentage increase each year. But, due to compounding, this 26% equals about a 30% increase when comparing the rates at the beginning to the rates at the end. Also, this pay rate increase does not include the contractual step increases. When these are considered the weighted average compensation for our pilots would have increased by 47% from the date of signing to the end of the five year term.
7. What were the different options offered that addressed four days off?
We understand that this is a very emotional issue and that is why we crafted a path to keep the four-day off language in the current CBA but also provide what we felt was a reasonable alternative. The Company offered a $3,000 per pilot signing bonus with the current CBA language, or a $10,000 per pilot signing bonus if that term was changed to allow us to schedule with a single four-day off block within the month and all other breaks a minimum of three days off. We felt that this would still meet the needs of most of our commuters, yet offer more money to everyone since it will make us more efficient.
8. What is happening with my June 15th paycheck?
I am aware that Andy Nelson and Ken McKenzie had a discussion about this issue while together at the negotiating table. Due to the uncertainly of whether there would be a strike or not, we delayed the transmission to ADP. Paychecks will be deposited on June 16th or 17th.Did the Company take money out of my 401K and can I rollover funds from my 401K?
The Company over-contributed to the match portion of the 401K and when we realized the error, we adjusted to the correct match. Federal law does not allow 401K rollover of funds while you are still an employee of the Company.
9. What is happening to my health insurance coverage while we are on strike? Is anyone else bearing hardship? What about management?
Health coverage for all pilots ceased at the time the strike was called. Cobra forms should be received shortly. I understand that this is a personal hardship. Approximately 190 headquarters and other non-crew employees have been placed on unpaid leave during the pendency of the strike. Spirit’s senior leadership is not accepting pay while the strike is in progress.
10. Is the company contemplating bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy is not an option anyone wants to consider, but it must be examined. No one at Spirit wants us to be the next Eastern.
Continue to send me your comments and questions. As always, you can reach me at
askBen@spiritair.com.
Thank you,
Ben
