Clear Right

You have your opinion, I have mine. Don't want to turn this into a union thread. A responsible cost conscious JBPA I will support. However, personally I think a union would eventually destroy the JetBlue corporate culture. Work groups would eventually become self interested and not company interested. This selfish mentality will eventually destroy the company in the long run. History proves this at every airline.

Southwest is just now beginning to feel the pressure of labor cost creep. Hopefully their great culture will prevail, but keep an eye on them as they lose their competitive advantage. WN traffic in Dec was flat at 0.4%, B6 enjoyed 14.3% traffic increase. Keep the costs in check at B6, grow responsibly. Get greedy and we will eventually become another failed airline for the history books.

lake alice

What is the corporate culture you speak of? The one where leadership just rewarded themselves with 15 million stock grants further diluting our share price? Or the culture where if you are out on disability you pay your own COBRA insurance?
As it was mentioned above every other union carrier that has been to bankruptcy still has better benefits than Jetblue. Oh yeah but they don't have our corporate culture. A culture mind you that will help you retire, right? They just have a fully funded retrtirement, affordable benefits, take care of their pilots on disability. Wow, all that and they hate their employees but..but...but...we have a corporate culture.

tsquare

Step away from the beer, and just walk away.

tsquare

This is exactly right. I am concerned for your sake that what happened over at SWA could be even worse for JB in the event of merger/acquisition. And if clearright is depending on the kindness of management to protect him(her) then there is a rude awakening ahead..

lake alice

It's not beer its blue juice. These are the pilots who continue to support managements efforts to reward themselves while building the airline on the backs of the pilots. They live and die by the management rhetoric and believe each and every word as if it was gospel. Words and phrases like cost creep, ROI, the DR etc without fully understanding the meaning. They follow this path because JetBlue is "better than their regional" where ALPA screwed them over. Again repeating the rhetoric.
Each unionized major operating has learned to work with management. Th have learned the over all health of th airline is paramount while never settling for less than th pilot group is worth.
At JetBlue the blue juicers put the company ahead of everything else. They refuse to stand up for what the pilot group is worth and therefore continue to settle for less, much less. All the while, as I mentioned above, management is granting itself 15 million shares.

Unbelievable. Those unionized carriers are ruining everything.

Beechnut

Other than the fella that is a Check Airman, it seems as though most of the Delta furloughies (320 Captains) at JetBlue are headed back.

So you may ask yourself this: Why?

Clear Right

Because they want the prospect of widebody flying and they don't want to have to give up their DAL seniority number. If you are looking for DAL flying then why did you come to JetBlue? Ask the DAL guys hired in the last wave a few years ago how far they moved up the seniority list? Still on the MadDog on Reserve making less than a JetBlue guy hired at the same time. DAL and B6 are apples and oranges, no desire to get into that debate. Not trying to do the B6 vs DAL watch contest. I am just advocating working for an airline that continues to grow responsibly and keeps its costs in check.

For, Lake, bring in JBPA and I will support you, bring in ALPA and you won't get my support unless you can convince me they have become an organization that is worthy of my support.

aewanabe

For you outside observers, Clear Right just accused junior guys of wanting "featherbedding" work rules to "upgrade faster". Then, IIRC, he told a guy on the 190 that his life will be much better as soon as he gets off that jet. Wow, just wow.

Those statements illustrate in a nutshell what the rest of us see as the "I got mine" senior types. To contrast, I've got 5 years on property, so in 2014 I will have been with B6 for half of its corporate life. The projected growth rate with zero attrition will leave me sitting at about 70 percent of the master seniority list at that point (IOW, bottom reserve in the 190 CA seat if I choose to do that to myself). I'm rather wondering where Clear Right found himself sitting with 7 years at JetBlue. Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Clear Right

I didn't accuse anybody of anything. I said what bothers me is some of the complaints I hear from folks that want to decrease productivity (i.e. the old featherbedding), thus removing JetBlue's cost competitive advantage. I apologize about the upgrade comment, that was a poor choice of words, and I retract my statement.

In my opinion it is very short sighted to try and decrease productivity and premium incentives. I am simply advocating keeping costs in line, clear and simple. My 190 comment was meant to mean his quality of life will improve rapidly at B6 compared to DAL due to our relative growth. If you want to take it out of context that is fine. I actually enjoy working for JetBlue and want to see the company be successful over the long term, with continued growth. That is all, I would hope that you would want the same. If you can convince me that you can keep costs in check and continue responsible growth with your plan, I will support it 100%.

I would ask you where your relative seniority will be in 20 years, not in 7 years. My guess is you will do quite well if JetBlue continues to grow. I simply feel we are being short sighted and not looking at the history of this crazy airline industry. I will just stay along for the ride and try to leave my opinion to myself, I would only ask that you don't let greed drive your decision process, and think more long term. Best of luck to you.

Clear Right

Lake I am not familiar with the 15 Million in stock grants. Is there somewhere I can get information on them? While I agree with you that things can improve at JetBlue, my only argument is to do it responsibly and to maintain a cost advantage that allows the company to continue to grow. And while I don't like the prospect of ALPA, I would support an In-House. I just don't want B6 to become another unproductive, cost burdened company that can not last long term due to an inability to compete with the other airlines. Convince me you can maintain a competitive advantage with your CBA and you will get my vote. Clear and simple.