Phoenix21

You can’t, that’s the point. Getting bodies in class is a measurable metric that regional airline management cares about. They don’t care about retention because especially on the regional level, newer employees are cheaper than employees with more tenure and they have the ability to turn DEC programs on an off as needed. Whenever there’s an issue of folks leaving universally, the management go to solution is to flash more cash to get more bodies in the door without consideration to what, more expensive, fixes could be made to keep folks on property.

Union leadership should have engaged management for items beyond the pay raise. If they didn’t, those things would never just come as a gift in the next few months, especially at Piedmont. The earliest they would come would be at the conclusion of contract negotiations that start in 2023 when the Union negotiated for them. It’s the Union leaderships job to look out for interests as a pilot group and negotiate for more. This was the perfect time to do so. Theres no reason they should have been complicit in kicking the QOL down the road another five plus years (half of the pilot group on property now would never see the improvements then) when the opportunity to negotiate for improvements presented themselves now.

The Union leadership made the right call in this situation.

surfcc11

Ask yourself why the company management wants us to take the money so bad. It’s because they know they are scraping the bottom of the barrel and they cannot recruit. If we take just the pay then recruiters can lie and say oh ya we get the same as PSA. A CFI doesn’t understand what a blended rate is, what a min day is, what trip averaging means.

If we take just the pay rates you realize that you will still make less then your peer at PSA, right? You realize they still have way way better schedules? Put down the kool aid, go talk to a PSA pilot and ask to see their schedules.

Phoenix21

Go sit next to a PSA pilot of similar seniority and compare schedules. It’s been done and they regularly can get 16-18 days off compared to 11 and credit 10-20+hours more than Piedmont Pilots at the same seniority.

Comparing the old rates, at the end of the year a Piedmont pilot has to have an average of 9 days off a month (with two days of triple) at the same seniority to make the same amount of money as a PSA pilot averaging 16 days off a month.

Previous a PDT pilot had work 3 more months a year (1 week extra per month for 12 months) to be on par with a PSA pilot pay wise. With their new rates, it may not even be possible to match a PSA pilots pay working 3+ months worth of days more per year.

A Manikin

I agree with this^

I knew what i signed up for. Yes I get angry sometimes, but if you live in base this is not a bad gig.

123494

Again, our schedules differ than PSA largely due to our route structure, bases, and the aircraft we fly. A rational pilot flying a 50 seater should not expect to make what a pilot flying a -900 makes. Changes to min day, rigs, etc. take time to implement. So much so that many of our pilots will be long gone by the time they're agreed upon. Also, spend some time talking to PSA pilots and you'll soon realize things aren't as great as you think they are. PDT pilots need to realize they do not have as much leverage as they think they have.

ninerdriver

Agreed. Those who say raise wages now and wait for staffing problems to continue aren't going to see staffing problems continue.

Varsity

Expressjet

They are still losing pilots month over month. Trying to hire 500 this year, net like negative 60 or something.

ninerdriver

...versus net negative 300+ in the second half of 2018.

surfcc11

I do talk to PSA pilots. Our QOL isn’t even in the same ballpark. You can believe all the management excuses you want but it doesn’t change the fact we have the least flexible worst credit schedules of any regional. Giving management the recruiting tool of a pay raise will slow the process down of making industry standard changes around here.

Bampilot

even when we had reserves and staffing five years ago the qol sucked. SF may be out of the picture but the mentality of sby is the same. You cannot change the way sby thinks after 30 odd years. SF once said that he wanted pilots away from home as much as possible which is why the schedules are so bad. He has been gone for two years and qol hasn’t improved much at all. Thinking that we have leverage or that we can change the way management runs this airline is idiotic. Until everyone in sby management changes PDT is going to say the same.
just my 2 cents