Junior Pilots At Usairways/mda Feel Sold Out

[BoeingBoy]

Union: Laid-off pilots must fly express jets

By Thomas Olson
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 11, 2004

With pay rates for MidAtlantic Airways pilots all but sewn up, negotiators for the pilots union at US Airways are weighing whether to let management bend contract rules for pilots and their pay at all of its express carriers.

Article

Jim

 

[WSurf]

Please tell those aren't the pay rates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mesa is no longer the bottom feeder

 

[matika]

SABRE is showing, for July 15, MidAtlantic runs from PIT to ATL, BNA, EWR, ALB, SYR.

15Jul isn't any special date, just a future one to "predict" what routes they will be flying. I have no idea whether that's an exhaustive list.

 

[Long Gone]

Now I understand the mantra- "Full Pay to the last Day", I guess I didn't hear the first part. "My full pay to the last day". Who would have thought that the ALPA leadership would be shown backbone and principals by the AFA? Good luck AFA, when the Titanic goes down at least you didn't throw your children out of the lifeboat, twice. When it all shuffles out in the end, a FA has a better chance of a decent income then a pilot. With 11k ATP/Part 121 pilots on the street, pilots are a dime a dozen. Most likely the U FA's can employ a U ALPA fellow around the yard or for a car wash. The employable skills a F/A possesses is marketable compared to a U pilot in the new economy. That's the next Unique Corporate Transaction.

 

[michael707767]

Laid-off pilots can expect pay cut to fly regional planes

Karen Ferrick-Roman, Times Staff 02/11/2004


Pilots laid off from US Airways who are looking for jobs with its upstart MidAtlantic Airways division can expect to earn less than half of what the airline's senior pilots make flying mainline jets.

The Master Executive Council of the pilots' union approved a contract Monday evening, accepting US Airways' terms for flying 70-seat planes for MidAtlantic Airways, a not-yet-airborne regional division of the airline.

"There is nothing from the Air Line Pilots Association that prevents the launching of this division," said Jack Stephan, ALPA spokesman.

Because the contract stemmed from the filing of a grievance, Stephan said that rank-and-file members would not vote on the agreement, which is based on the contract for American Eagle, the commuter line of American Airlines.

A pilot's top rate will be $58 an hour, Stephan said. Depending on experience, and years of service with US Airways and the number of hours flown (usually 85 hours a month, 100 hours a month tops), a captain would earn $50,000 to $60,000 a year, and a first officer about $35,000 a year, Stephan said.

That's how much laid-off US Airways pilot Ron Gabler said he was making when he switched from military to commercial piloting 20 years ago. That's less than what a friend of his, a Pittsburgh bus driver, makes.

But if Gabler were offered a job, he said he'd have to take it.

Gabler, 57, a former pilot for Emery, the U.S. Postal Service and Eastern Airlines, had flown for US Airways only 2½ years before he was laid off in January 2002. Since then, he has worked for merely three months, as a corporate jet pilot. His wife, a flight attendant, has absorbed pay cuts of up to 35 percent, so keeping the family afloat has meant scooping money out of savings and pondering putting their Bell Acres house up for sale.

"People are so hard-pressed financially," Gabler said. "Subsequently, it's like throwing a bone to a starving dog. That, to me, equates to people being exploited."

Meanwhile, Gabler said, some senior US Airways pilots flying Airbus jets to Europe still pull down more than $225,000 a year. Senior pilots are the ones who still have union voting rights - and they decide the economic fate of the laid-off junior pilots, he said.

"In order to protect what they have, unfortunately, they're willing to sacrifice the wages and careers of pilots under them," Gabler said. "No medicine is too strong, and no sacrifice is too great, as long as they don't have to make it.

"It's not even immoral," Gabler said. "It's criminal."

"It's just not worth your while if you've got any time left in your career," said Mike Oakey, a retired US Airways pilot from Beaver. "I'd feel pretty sold out if it were me."

Stephan said he didn't suspect that pilots would be thrilled with the pay. "It's the low end of what that plane should be flown for," he said.

Although Pittsburgh has been the only city publicly discussed as a possible MidAtlantic base, Stephan said, the contract "doesn't preclude it from being based elsewhere."

MidAtlantic is "still slated for Pittsburgh, (but) issues have to be resolved," said David Castelveter, US Airways spokesman.

The airline and Association of Flight Attendants will discuss contracts today, Castelveter said.

Teddy Xidas, president of the local AFA chapter, has said the flight attendants' contract, like the pilots', is being modeled after the American Eagle agreement.

Talks will start with pilots again next week, as the union and the airline work out routes and staffing, Stephan said.

And, if the day should come to pass when MidAtlantic is flying larger jets, both the company and the union reserve the right to negotiate that rate, Stephan said.

MidAtlantic is expected to be flying in the next couple of months, Castelveter said.

Stephan said he expected the airline to start with four planes based in Pittsburgh.

Karen Ferrick-Roman can be reached online at [email protected].


©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

 

[robbedagain]

well those junior pilots who feel sold out now know how we in the mainline express cities feel when our union and mgmt team sold us down the river and failed to throw in the life preservers.

 

[Hope777]

Sounds like what Mailine Pilots have been doing to the W/O all along. They didn't want those boys to have RJ's so now it is almost ALL contracted out. Well they got RJ's for themselves now and the pay to go with it. Enjoy ! ! ! !

 

[DorkDriver]

Question for Chip. I thought PSA was going to be sold to MESA. What happened?

Also, is part of the scope relieft discussions this week dealing with the 50/50 issue at PSA (meaning all aircraft at PSA will be flown at 50/50 with no 100% staffing by either side on any jet aircraft)?

 

[bluetoad]

Because the contract stemmed from the filing of a grievance, Stephan said that rank-and-file members would not vote on the agreement, which is based on the contract for American Eagle, the commuter line of American Airlines.


Isnt it amazing how it always works out that the people making the sacrafice never get a chance to vote on it?

Sold out again! Soon there will be more AAA pilots that have been shafted by ALPA than not. When these "sold out" pilots get back to MDA they will get their voice back and hopefully they will vote ALPA out on their butts!

This is the beginning of the end for ALPA

 

[AOG-N-IT]

I no fan of what's taking place with our junior pilots...or the F/A's , it's indeed sad when so few can decide the fate of so many.

My biggest broad scale concern is this. American Eagle wages do not seem to be off-setting AA's plunge into the red....so why would we assume to achieve any better results when U itself has less chances to make money or lower it's costs with a much smaller route system.

I'm almost convinced that U is lowring the bar to make itself more readily available to be absorbed in some fashion..as I am less convinced to believe it's trying to actually fix what's wrong here.

 

[U 737 PILOT]

.... " Stephan said he didn't suspect that pilots would be thrilled with the pay. "It's the low end of what that plane should be flown for," he said.
... " Now that's the UNDERSTATEMENT of the year ! The bar has been set to a new low. And the people who voted this in don't even get the pleasure of having to work for these insulting wages !

 

[Stuka Luva]

Let's just agree to 50/50, get the airplanes here, and get on with our lives.

 

[Furloughedagain]

Well, there's always the sick pleasure we can all get in watching Roy Freundlich work there for poverty wages.

 

[bluetoad]

Fuloughedagain,

Not to worry. He probably has a sweetheart deal worked out to become the communications officer once he gets back on property. His pay will be augmented by our ALPA dues.

 

[OldpropGuy]

Let's just agree to 50/50, get the airplanes here, and get on with our lives.

Anyone would expect such a statement from a PSA pilot!

Why not throw in "Look at me now!"