bleedair

The intent here is to create a central resource for newhires from the perspective of existing WN pilots.

SWA is at a potential fork in the road with contract negotiations, a new CEO, the meltdown, the aftermath of the Kelly years, strain on the culture, a dynamic market that could include an upcoming recession and the failure of the regional airline model, age 65/67, automation (SP ops), etc etc.

Many of today’s newhires have not endured the experiences that are etched on the souls of the old guard. That does not mean they will not face similar challenges going forward. They should be embraced immediately.

The pilot group (and the airline!) will fare the best if a serious effort to welcome, include, mentor, and educate this new blood is made. In other words, let’s do SWAPA’s job for them here.

Sound off your best advice to new hires. FUPM 5/20 are catchy but do nothing to educate. Grouchy ole burn out comments do nothing to attract, mentor, or include.

Is it possible that we could create a thread where a newhire could spend a few hours and be armed to begin their career with open eyes? We can hardly complain if we can’t even get this done. I’m new. Its obvious to me newhires need a resource, and what’s available does not meet the moment.

Lets create the newhire indoc bible…

waterskisabersw

Sounds like you want to join/want others to join the SWA Culture group on a certain social media platform. That is strictly moderated to make sure only rose-eyed-glasses comments are allowed, like what it seems like you want here.

bleedair

No.

If my gamble on WN is going to payoff, the majority of the pilot group needs to be on the same page.

Is SWAPA in this moment? There is no time to waste. Education works.

ElonMusk

BleedAir

If you gambled thinking that this work group will be on the same page, you might want to cut your losses now.

What’s your thought on the latest SWAPA email this morning? It seems the company has decided to slow down talks even more.

Mr Magoo

1. Pass training
2. Learn the Contract
3. Read “Flying the Line” by G.E. Hopkins
4. Apply to Delta

bleedair

My thoughts are it will be a miracle if this thread isn’t derailed by page two…but I’m not going to be the one to do it.

SlipKid

No kidding. If we ever ended up with any semblance of unity, I'd have a coronary from the shock.

Seriously, anyone wanting to spend the time and research just how we got here, there's a forum that was very active prior to FB and twitter etc., where all of the contractual stuff was discussed by Southwest pilots of every opinion, going back to 2000. A few of the APC regulars are on there. You have to be a current SW pilot to be allowed access to it.

It's kind of fallen to the wayside with all of the other social media choices these days, but it is the only place that has the unaltered history archived back that far, warts and all.

The union forum was wiped nearly clean when the Airtran acquisition took place, and the search feature there is nearly useless in any case.

Almost every discussion is archived and searchable, and provides a lot of insight to how we've always ended up with industry lagging contracts.

I am not sure what the policy is on here about directly referring to other forums, so if anyone's interested, PM me and I'll send a link.

WHACKMASTER

Precisely what Mr. Magoo said. I would insert #5 to include engaging with your union as much as possible. Attend events, Roundups, etc. but at the very least make sure you are receiving SWAPA comm and reading it. Your union is there to protect and further your profession. Your company is most certainly not.

Definitely apply to Delta (& UAL, AA, FedEx, UPS). When you get that big fat Delta profit sharing check, be sure to spend it on a REAL sports car (Mazda Miata baby!).

That is all for now. Carry on…..

WHACKMASTER

Great point. Every new-hire should at least be reading the SWAPA forum if not posting on it. There’s lot of good info on there.

SlipKid

Agreed.

The moderation can get a little out of hand though, right out of the Goebbels school of information control. Seemingly innocent and respectful posts get edited for "content", like on FB. Unfortunately, like. said in my last post, they purged a lot of great info from there a decade ago.

The forum I referred to earlier came into existence when SWAPA shut down the official forum during a vote to open, IIRC, our TEN(!) year, industry lagging contract early, 2000. They shut it down because at that time, SWAPA was deeply entrenched and embedded with the company, and many of the officers were what we referred to as "B.O.B.s" (Big option boys).

They wanted to ensure that the growing undercurrent of resentment coming from the junior ranks over the criminally disproportionate stock option distribution (that "we" took in lieu of any raises during the life of a TEN(!) year contract), tied to (did I mention?) a TEN(!) year, seriously industry lagging contract, was effectively stifled.

If it wasn't that, it was some equally egregious concession that SWAPA was selling to the pilot as a "win" that they were trying to force down our throats, closing the forum to prevent our discussing it.