Crazy Canuck

I'm not sure how you see that as so. Everything we have we have worked for-without the help of unions. I personally feel alpa is directly responsible for the state if the industry.

prior121

Take your blinders off.

Every gain in any contract of every airline in this country is an indirect or direct result of union work. If you say "Well we don't have a Union at Skywest" your simply are not thinking outside the box on how labor pressure indirectly affects non union airlines.

deltajuliet

This is going back a little ways, but how does one go about swapping reserve days?

flapshalfspeed

Once they reopen trades for Nov, you can go into flica and swap reserve days around 1-for-1, as long as the day you're trading out of has 2 or more net reserves than the day you're trading into.

I.e. if there's 28 net reserves on the 15th, and 26 net reserves on the 20th, you could trade your shift the 15th for the 20th, assuming no legalities were violated by the trade.

Look at the reserve grid and go to "Submit or View Requests" (I think), and you should be able to submit swap requests starting tomm around 12PM PHX time (I think).

worksweekdays

One does not simply "swap" reserve days.

That being said, call crew line and they MAY, I emphasize MAY, let you move a couple days around depending on how the reserve grid looks.

24/48

Not sure how long you've been at Skywest, but it has always been a given that as soon as a unionized regional carrier achieves an improved contract that Jerry would ultimately give you guys matching improvements, or very close to it. This has always kept the masses happy over there, you are proof of that.

As far as ALPA being responsible for the state of the industry...well I guess it depends on your perspective. Not saying everything is "lolly pops & balloons" but things have improved dramatically over the last few years since emerging from the decade that started off with an economic decline that was accelerated by 9/11, SARS, oil going through the roof, and a recession. Pretty sure those things were out of ALPA's hands, although, allowing the outsourcing of jets back in the 90's certainly allowed the Camel's nose under the tent.

The 50 seaters are quickly becoming obsolete and ALPA has contracts at both DAL and UAL, that although allows for 70-76 seat jets/props to be outsourced (your welcome BTW), replaces the 50 seaters at about a 2.5:1 ratio. In the next 3 years both DAL and UAL will park about 400 outsourced aircraft with no replacement. Combine that with the fact that the pilot hiring pool is getting drained at an alarming rate (we haven't even hit peak retirements at UAL) and you have the makings for even more of that outsourced flying coming back "in-house" in some form. Could be a flow through, could be provisioning, who knows. What I do know is that the UALMEC is not all that interested in a flow through, or provisioning agreement with a non-ALPA carrier.

So blame/hate/whatever ALPA all you want, but I'll continue helping my brothers & sisters at MAG.

deltajuliet

Thanks flaps and weekdays.

I think I get it.

Is swapping with other pilots possible? I don't see why they'd care about net reserves if you and I switched shifts. Nothing changes for them; they're right where they started.

squall line

You swap reserve days on FLICA. Very few people know about that option. No need to call anyone. As stated above, it depends on the reserve grid.

-submit/view requests
-swap
-scroll down and select the day you no longer want to work, then push next
-above the 1st day of the month it provides a drop-down menu to select the day you prefer to work.

After that, I think all you do is push submit.

worksweekdays

Well I've learned something new. I haven't cared about reserve for too long.

Crazy Canuck

Fair enough! I can see how that would work. SKW has always been a company who has tried very hard to avoid a union coming in. So I can see how you can make that argument that we are "riding on the coat tails" of other carriers. I happen to believe, however limited my experience, that we DO have a generally good group of management and pilots who want to work together. Of course it's a business and there will be conflicting views between management and pilot group but that doesn't indicate partisan behaviour between the two groups.

I also believe in a two way street where unionized carriers can point to the good parts of our contract in their negotiations and say "see what these pilots have? And they don't even have union representation!"

I also believe that if the above changed we would not hesitate to get representation. I, personally, would prefer a group with more self interest than ALPA who also represents many major carriers.

The fact remains, 24/48, that in spite of differing opinions, we are all on the same side. We are all fighting for this industry to get better (yes even non unionized SKW pilots) and we all want to help each other reach our goal, whether that be a major or other. Sure there are bad apples that are selfish out there (and they will get the karma they richly deserve).

I, personally, turned down a fast upgrade at Mesa, PSA, Compass, and interviews with several other carriers to come to SKW because I felt, despite the lengthy upgrade and possible stagnation, their work rules were top of the industry. I don't feel that's "scab like" behaviour-in fact I felt I was doing my part to accept only the best that the industry has to offer, though I will not pretend to say our first year pay is anything close to "decent." :P

Just my 2 cents. Cheers brother!