ExperimentalAB

For arguments sake, let's say that they did in fact merge ASA/SKW...

Is SkyWest not a more senior Pilot Group? Seems to me like SKW might have an advantage there...but then again - I really don't understand what the merger would do to me personally either LoL. Any insight?

bla bla bla

Not from what I understand, asa has a much more senior fo group. Anyone have the exact info?

ExperimentalAB

But they wouldn't be combining the flying - correct?? I don't see how that would work given the extreme differences in training and such...

And I believe you about the more senior FO group - their upgrades haven't matched ours lately.

POPA

I don't have exact numbers, but ASA's pilot group is for the most part way senior to Skywest. That's why the SKW pilots don't want a DOH-based merger.

Blkflyer

Anyonw who says that Skywest is a bottom feeder is just not well informed, I dont work for Said airline but I know alot of people there and they are certainly very happy, I would love to know what their cost structure is like tho, how are they profitable and future for more flying

HermannGraf

1. There are many regionals with Pilots paying ALPA a porcentage of every paycheck without getting anything for it. The Pinnacle pilot group (to mention one) is dominated strongly by Alpa and The Alpa representatives almost intimidate new hires to sign up for Alpa membership during Indoc but strangely Alpa has not been any help or power in making the Management sign a new contract for the pilots and its been going on for years. Where are the union muscles? Why are they not delivering what they are paid for? They claim they would not sign a bad contract and keep the Pilots without any contract year after year meaning no changes at all. Would they do better without Alpa? Maybe not but they would for sure not do worse and they would not be paying for nothing. When will the Pinnacle pilots get their contract? Will it be thanks to ALPA? Probably NOT.

2. Pilot salaries in the USA has been reduced to ridicolous levels tha last 10 years in negotiations between management of different airlines and ALPA. The normal answer from ALPA is that it would be even worse if they had not saved it for the Pilots, yeah right....at the same time they, ALPA blame all management of companies for the low salaries for the new hires but think about it....there are always two parties in negotiations and if ALPA signed a contract it means they accepted it and are responsible for it.......ALPA has for the last 10 years taken money from the Pilots from every paycheck while the Pilots as group lost more than any union defended group.

I believe that ALPA is responsible for letting the salaries of new hire pilots go below Mc. Donals teenage salaries. I believe ALPA is more responsible for the result of the last 10 years than the Management of companies, at least the Management group do not claim to defend the pilots.

What other group that has 30k to 60k invested in the studies makes 17 thousend to 23 thousend the first years?

Pilots starting at their 121 Airline are entitled to food stamps and are the worst paid professional group in the US.

Who is the biggest representative for this group?.....ALPA.
Great achievements.

During the same 10 years that Pilots have lost their buying power and starting salaries been (Acepted and signed by ALPA) lowered to ridicolous levels ALPA has grown strongly with all the money taken from the pilots.
I am not against unions even if it sounds like I am,

UNIONS are good if they do their job. ALPA does not. ALPA is responsible as well as the management for destroying the Pilot Career as an attractive and respected one. A good UNION is the best and every working group should have one, no UNION is not always the worst.

THE WORST is paying to a NO good UNION.

Just look back 10 years and see what ALPA has accomplished.

ghilis101

easy tiger. look back 50 years and see what alpa has accomplished. look forward 10 years and see what ALPA WILL accomplish. then come back and say what you just said.

what union or non-union or any entity at all could have accomplished anything at all after 9/11? not to mention the worst anti-labor administration in decades which made pilots powerless to do anything. dont blame alpa, the courts ruled against pilots over and over so what did you want them to do?

heres something alpa did for you in the last few years. remember jetblue's sneaky little experiment to fly 2 transcons in a single day with 2 pilots (with a 3rd guy in the back to make it legal) to try to prove the 8 hour flight time limitation in a day could be exceeded? they fought to put an end to that nonsense. but you probably dont care, you just like to badmouth them because times were tough. youll jump on the bandwagon in a few years watch...

JetJock16

Yes, SKW top pilots are more senior than ASA's but something like 80% of our pilot group will loose seniority if merged with ASA. If you just look at what has happened over the last 18 months, you'll see that 37% (around 1000) of SKW pilots have been hired compared to less than 23% (around 400) at ASA? (according to a friend of mine at ASA, hired May 06)

A merger of the two groups will never happen for many reasons:

1. Prevent JA from whipsaw the two groups against each other.
2. If the two labor groups merge then it would become VERY Difficult for SKW to sale ASA down the road. An Airline with no pilots isn’t and airline. You could call them Jerry’s “Ace in the Hole.”
3. By merging the two pilot groups, JA will being showing little regard for his current SKW pilots; seeing that ASA will fight for DOH which will totally shaft SKW pilots. We won’t be placed at “THE BOTTOM,” but we’ll lose seniority.
4. Currently the overwhelming majority of SKW pilots LOVE drinking Jerry’s Kool-Aid (“Jerry’s Kids”). If he allowed the two pilot groups to merge he would end up with an overwhelming majority shift the other way to “Anti-Mgmnt.” Effective killing Jerry's other “Ace in the Hole.”

YAKflyer

You get it!!!

JetJock16

The only way (my opinion) ASA pilots and SKW pilots, will ever merge, is if they both sue SKW Inc for merger. This will NEVER happen because SKW pilots, including myself, do not want to merge with ASA, not even if we vote in ALPA will we merge. Bottom line; this is no different than DAL owning Comair and ASA (previously, also a good example of why SKW Inc won't allow it), NWA owning Compass & Mesaba and Frontier owning Lynx. Yes those are majors owning regionals but from a business standpoint there's absolutely no difference.

Now if ASA wants to negotiate a “Flow Through” much like Mesaba and Compass have, then we can talk. LOL! Now that’s funny there!

PS. That's a joke and nothing more.