Welcome to the Rest of your Career: Redux

[BE19Pilot]

So you are ok with a pilot going on food stamps because they are being trained to fly an airplane and are only going to make $25,000? How does that work into your trade unionism soapbox? Guys and gals are under immense pressure the first year, giving them financial pressure isn't acceptable.




Explain to me were I said it needs to be dropped to $60,000? Regardless of that, if a guaranteed flow was to be established, guys wouldn't be at regionals long before they flowed up. With this flow, it would also cause others such as Spirit/Virgin/Jetblue to raise their pay/benefits as they would need to incentivise those to leave a guaranteed job to move over to a carrier outside of a flow agreement. That then raises the squiggly lines on that charts you reference below.



I saw him a few weeks ago and asked him what he thinks of all this regional cost cutting. He thinks it was going to correct itself and he was very bullish on what is happening at the majors. I asked him specifically, 'well what about those still at the regionals'. He then said, 'the amount of retirements will fix the problem for those that want to move on.' I can't disagree with him on that.



You need to read more closely Todd. Notice on how I said nothing about the 50+ seat aircraft and pay cuts? You put your negotiating leverage in aircraft that have a future. Majors are shifting more of the flying on their own from the 50 seaters to the 66 to 76 seat market. The economics of the 50 seat RJ just aren't there. For example, as Colgan went out of business some of the cities that we used to serve on Slaabs, a few of our mainline partners tried to put a 50 seat jet on it. They then had to pull out as the economics were no there. Some cities they didn't even try to replace our flying with a jet on. Let airlines park the 50 seat jets on their own. But let us put the money in the larger aircraft AND getting the union members better paying, more stable jobs.



Oh would you relax already and stop throwing around personal insults? If my moral reasons got in my way, I would NOT have joined two organizing committees, which caused my job to be threatened and all the other 'fun' that goes along with being on the organizing committee twice of a non-union company.

I know the pressures of being at an airline trying to organize an ALPA vote. I was in our HQ in 2007, and called into the CP's office with the Dir. of FS. They put a list of names in front of me, and asked if any of them were at a meeting in DC at an ALA conference? I said, I cannot speak to that, but I said that I was at this conference personally for 2-days. It was really quiet, and they didn't ask me anymore ALPA questions ever again.
It was a very stressful time at my old airline for a couple of years with the merger/acquisition. Going through a Ch. 11 and seeing your friends getting kicked to the curb was very difficult on me personally, but I say to you all keep your chin up, fly safe and take pride in having the integrity to speak your peace whether you agree or disagree don't disparage your fellow pilot groups that belong to ALPA. It is very destructive, solves nothing and feeds right into management's belief that pilots have no real unity and are a lot of selfish, righteous Sons a biotches. I don't like agree 100% with everything ALPA represents, says or does, but I won't let it effect my personal relationships with other pilots.

 

[Boris Badenov]

IMHO, if you're hanging your hat on the integrity of other pilots, you're gonna get yourself a dirty hat right quick like. Don't have to like it, but there it is. Now what?