Well that didn't last very long.
I thought old Tom (Moore) had turned in his Tiger stripes for a more cuddly calico type demeanor - but he's after us again!
[For those outside the company, Tom has these "dial-a-president" hotline messages every week.]
This week Tom dresses down the ALPA union for presenting outrageous demands for 737-800/Airbus wages. He quotes us a being 60% (or some such nonsense) over major carriers and way out of proportion to JetBlue rates (which I guess he sees as the game we should emulate).
Of course, Tom has 12 to 15 year veterans of the CRJ waiting and chomping at the bit for narrowbody wage scales - he does not have the luxury of a JetBlue who I guess doesn't even know what a 5-year captain looks like. So I'm thinking that Tom is disappointed that a 12 year veteran of ACA isn't willing to accept a new hire wage scale on the bigger plane. His reasoning (IMHO) must be that if a CRJ captain is happy at $80/hr after working 13 years for the company, then that same captain will be completely willing to fly a brand new narrowbody for $85/hr. And I bet he thinks that our senior FO's will love flying the new big plane for $42/hr. Yep, that'll make ACA a low-cost carrier. It will also make us the "Mesa" of the Nationals/Majors. (Another reminder to non-aviation readers - we only can work 1000hrs per year - $42/hr equal $42,000/year salary to fly a 130-150 seat airplane!)
But the thing that irks me the most is to publicly denounce the pilots as some kind of money grabbing self-centered group set on killing the Project Independence celebration. Tom to tell a ramper or gate agent that our 14 year veteran pilots will be making 60% more than a new hire on the same plane elsewhere is just deception and lies. Sure would like an apology letter or hotline message pointing out the one-to-one comparison of our new hire rates to the other carrier's new hire rates and the one-to-one comparison of our veteran rates to their veteran rates. I bet we aren't 60% higher, in fact I'm willing to bet we aren't higher at all!
For Project Independence to work, we need to learn to play nice with each other and share our toys just like they teach in grade school. If some in the class are going to be bullies and play the "no it's mine!" game, then we are just going to have to put the toys back in box and send everybody to the corners for a time-out. (So glad that ACA People living the ACA Way with ACA Pride are acting like ACA Adults!)
I thought old Tom (Moore) had turned in his Tiger stripes for a more cuddly calico type demeanor - but he's after us again!
[For those outside the company, Tom has these "dial-a-president" hotline messages every week.]
This week Tom dresses down the ALPA union for presenting outrageous demands for 737-800/Airbus wages. He quotes us a being 60% (or some such nonsense) over major carriers and way out of proportion to JetBlue rates (which I guess he sees as the game we should emulate).
Of course, Tom has 12 to 15 year veterans of the CRJ waiting and chomping at the bit for narrowbody wage scales - he does not have the luxury of a JetBlue who I guess doesn't even know what a 5-year captain looks like. So I'm thinking that Tom is disappointed that a 12 year veteran of ACA isn't willing to accept a new hire wage scale on the bigger plane. His reasoning (IMHO) must be that if a CRJ captain is happy at $80/hr after working 13 years for the company, then that same captain will be completely willing to fly a brand new narrowbody for $85/hr. And I bet he thinks that our senior FO's will love flying the new big plane for $42/hr. Yep, that'll make ACA a low-cost carrier. It will also make us the "Mesa" of the Nationals/Majors. (Another reminder to non-aviation readers - we only can work 1000hrs per year - $42/hr equal $42,000/year salary to fly a 130-150 seat airplane!)
But the thing that irks me the most is to publicly denounce the pilots as some kind of money grabbing self-centered group set on killing the Project Independence celebration. Tom to tell a ramper or gate agent that our 14 year veteran pilots will be making 60% more than a new hire on the same plane elsewhere is just deception and lies. Sure would like an apology letter or hotline message pointing out the one-to-one comparison of our new hire rates to the other carrier's new hire rates and the one-to-one comparison of our veteran rates to their veteran rates. I bet we aren't 60% higher, in fact I'm willing to bet we aren't higher at all!
For Project Independence to work, we need to learn to play nice with each other and share our toys just like they teach in grade school. If some in the class are going to be bullies and play the "no it's mine!" game, then we are just going to have to put the toys back in box and send everybody to the corners for a time-out. (So glad that ACA People living the ACA Way with ACA Pride are acting like ACA Adults!)
