Hayduke

Why? Pay has gone up what, 1.3% in the last 5 years? That's a pay cut accounting for inflation and cost of living...not to mention we're flying bigger planes for that. There's your evidence that it's already started.

How long was Ron Reber president for? Changes are already happening. I don't think the company is going down the crapper by any means, but to think that things are going to cruise along as they always have is way overly optimistic. I'd like to get the protection now, get a union that has a rapport with management, and not have to worry about getting torn apart when things go south.

JetJock16

Not to mention that inflation, over the past 5 years, has increased at well over 3% annually. Change is happening and blind faith/optimism isn't enough anymore. Mgmnt has slowly chipped away (not accounting for inflation with one BS increase) and QOL while using cost neutral tactics/tricks to persuade us of the opposite. A good example is SchedPlus+. Yes; it could be good for us but it can only work if we have adequate staffing, which is essential for the software to work and something the company has historically reframed from doing.

YAKflyer

Two points......SKW is not a privately held company, it is traded on the Nasdaq exchange.

Second, you may think a 1% pay raise for the jet and no increase at all for the Brasilia over three years is being treated very well. But, in the face of management spending millions to buy back stock, but I do not. In fact I think it is immoral for management to spend those resources for a stock buy back to enrich their stock portfolios, while expecting you to take a pay cut (do to inflation) every year. A pat on the head and being told how much you are appreciated while you slowly sink lower and lower while they get richer is in my opinion just the opposite of being treated well.

Can you enlighten me about what I'm not getting?????

dontsurf

Ok, since you asked, I will. I actually wrote a really long post that went into great detail on this, but that post disappeared into the ether. So I'm not going to type it all out again. So I'll just answer your question very straightforwardly since you never studied finance and you've obviously been told something by somebody and it's just not true. No one in management gets rich from the company buying back outstanding stock. That doesn't even make any sense. How would they get rich from that? But that leaves the question why would they do it? There are 2 reasons companies will buy back outstanding shares. 1. To get a bump in the stock price because they either have something good coming up or they want to trick "the street" into thinking they do. Or 2. (this is the one that fits SKYW situation) they want to get their cash balances down so they do not appear as such a good buyout (takeover) target to other companies or private equity firms. Skyest Inc. management like running the company. They do not want someone else to buy it. With too much cash on the books, you look more and more like a good buyout target. By buying back some stock, you lower that cash and your balance sheets don't look as tempting as they did before.

I hope that everyone will now stop spouting out the "management is getting rich by buying back stock and they should be giving us that money" nonsense. Yes, I agree that they should be giving us that money (I work for Skywest and it is sad that there are no yearly pay increases), but they are not getting rich personally by having the company buy back the stock.

waflyboy

The majority of users who chose to vote, that is. Of the hundreds of reads this thread has, the number of votes is a bit disappointing.

Lots of folks either don't care to vote or just don't care (and hence, didn't vote). In the case of the upcoming election, not voting is the same as voting no as I understand it.

Freightpuppy

Ya, you have a really great pilot/management relationship....that's why Brasilia pilots have gotten NO raise in how long and RJ guys got 1% while the company is making money hand over fist? Great relationship there Sparky.

Freightpuppy

Yup, they treat you really well with no COLA raise in over 6 years......ooops.....sorry, 1% for 3/4 of the pilot group. LOL! What a joke!

YAKflyer

Simply put, in this day and age most senior management folks get a significant amount of their compensation in the form of stock and stock options in publicly traded companies. Most also are rewarded in bonuses based on the stock price or increase in stock value. Therefore, since a stock buy back is designed to increase the per share value, management does benefit significantly (become richer) from a stock buy back.

OTOH if management's only reason to doing a buyback is to reduce the cash balances to avoid a takeover, that would be the height of selfishness to take corporate resources and burn them while asking the employees to progressively work for less (inflation reduction). That would be even more immoral to me. You are the one who I do not think gets it. Thanks for making my argument for me.......

dontsurf

Ok, this just went from ignorant to stupid. I remember now why I don't get involved in this online posting stuff. I tried to point out from a corporate finance concept, why it is that a corporation would buy back their own stock. Yet some people seem to think every single move by management of a company is some sort of conspiracy to keep the working man down, crushed under management's heels. That's ridiculous. So you think it's much nicer for management to keep huge cash balances so the company gets bought out, then forcibly merges seniority lists and people end up getting furloughed and other people get laid off? That doesn't even make any sense. If you'd ever bothered to study anything about business, you'd know that the officers of a corporation have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to do the right thing by the company. Just because they don't give every penny the company makes back to the employees does not make them some Scroogelike bastards. They are doing their jobs. Would it be nice to get raises? Of course. But I came to this company from a company that had a union, had a contract, had yearly raises, and was still a pathetic place to work because management took every single opportunity they possibly could to screw over ever single employee. That's not the management philosophy here at Skywest, and that's why a lot of people work here. Corporate buybacks of outstanding stock have nothing at all to do with screwing the employees over. Your ridiculous conspiracy theories don't even make sense and just show what a fearmongerer you are. Give it a rest. Focus on legitimate things, like no raises period. Don't get into things that you don't know anything about. It keeps you from looking stupid.

INAV8OR

NO for ALPA. Besides the safety factor, Alpa is just a money making machine. They will not help you at a Regional Carrier, because you don't make enough money for them to make it worth their time. Sure they will come in and tell you how bad you need a union then when you need them most they will just take care of a bigger problem. Anything Alpa national can do, an in house union can do better. Look at the facts: UPS, SWA, and AA, all non-alpa and all have the best respective contracts and all are just as safe as alpa. Look at all the union leaders being fired. I wouldn't do it...