Spirit Pilot Stike

[Tapi]

I do get that Unions help their employees, I just don't like strikes which hurt everyone...

 

I agree with you 100% on this one. Trust me, I don't think that there's a single Spirit pilot happy or excited about this strike (or any strike). It's a horrible feeling being a pilot in this situation. Strikes are dreaded immensely by all parties involved and fortunately only used as a last resource when everything else has failed...

[trailercruiser]

My brother-in-law flies for Spirit and makes 6 figures per year. He is completely against the strike. Firefly forget it these anti right to work people don't get why unions have decreased 10 fold in 30 years. Gm showed you exactly why unions do not work nowadays. I love workers that cross these little guys picket lines to feed their families . Unions are gov'ts favorite step child. Promise them things for votes. All Polls show 75% of america are against Unions. Unions at one time had a place but now they are there to get you paid as much as you can with as little work that you can do and take down the company. Bye Bye Spirit , the 19,000 dollar a year pilot will now be making zero. ;)

[futaba951]

My brother-in-law flies for Spirit and makes 6 figures per year. He is completely against the strike. Firefly forget it these anti right to work people don't get why unions have decreased 10 fold in 30 years. Gm showed you exactly why unions do not work nowadays. I love workers that cross these little guys picket lines to feed their families . Unions are gov'ts favorite step child. Promise them things for votes. All Polls show 75% of america are against Unions. Unions at one time had a place but now they are there to get you paid as much as you can with as little work that you can do and take down the company. Bye Bye Spirit , the 19,000 dollar a year pilot will now be making zero. ;)

 

Yeah, what trailer said!! :D

[oncruisecontrol]

My brother-in-law flies for Spirit and makes 6 figures per year. He is completely against the strike. ;)

 

 

May I ask, how long has your brother-in-law worked for Spirit? And also, how long has he been a commercial airline pilot?

[gone_cruisin]

May I ask, how long has your brother-in-law worked for Spirit? And also, how long has he been a commercial airline pilot?

 

And how much of that is overtime?

 

The junior pilots don't always get first pick of any extra flying.

[Tapi]

My brother-in-law flies for Spirit and...he is completely against the strike....I love workers that cross these little guys picket lines to feed their families...

 

As I mentioned before, nobody likes or wants strikes.

 

Go ahead! Ask your brother in law if he will be crossing the picket line. I can assure you that he won't. Your brother in law knows that crossing the picket line means that he may be able to make some money in the short term, but long term, he will have committed career suicide. He may be stuck at Spirit for the rest of his life, and if for some reason Spirit went out of business, he will never, EVER get hired by a reputable airline for the rest of his career...

[fin]

You can be sure of one thing....there are thousands of over seas workers who get up every morning and go to work and thank the AMERICAN UNIONS for sending them for their jobs!!!

 

That was very subtle ....

[Tapi]

These anti right to work people don't get why unions have decreased 10 fold in 30 years.

 

Talk about misleading information. The Air Line Pilot's Association has been around since 1931 and today, it represents more than 66,000 pilots and recently has grown to represent more than 42 airlines in the U.S. and Canada....

 

Get your facts straight...

[roundthebend]

We're supposed to fly with Spirit on Friday from Las Vegas to San Juan. Thank goodness my roll call let me know what was going on as I'm in Australia and would never have known.

I've done a lot of reading the last couple of days and while the strike is a pain in the butt, it seems the pilots have tried for a very long time to have the issue resolved. If they truly are being paid that little, then I don't blame them for taking the action they are. To me though it would have been better to restrict flying hours rather than a total walk out.

We are lucky - we have insurance and spare cash in the bank to cover purchasing new tickets. I feel very sad that some people who have struggled to scrape up enough money to take a vacation and don't have insurance cover may loose a lot of money and their hard earned vacation.

I just hope it gets resolved soon. An airline this small will go down very quickly and the pilots involved will then be on the unemployment line.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Until they actually cancel our flight, insurance means nothing. We will wait until we arrive in Vegas on Wednesday and then try to get an alternate flight if necessary.

I WILL find a way to get to San Juan. We are going to cruise with our daughter who works on the Victory and there's not an airline or union on this earth that will stop me from seeing her!

[jordanaire]

My sister, along with her daughter and her two sons (1 & 7) have been in Myrtle Beach all of last week and were to fly home this afternoon on Spirit. I spent over 8 hrs on the computer trying to get them home today!

 

They could not get anything out of MB, so they rented a car and drove to Florence, SC for a 6pm USAir flight to Charlotte, then connect on their original flight to Detroit. Well, the flight got cancelled due to mechanical problems! So they paid $350 more to get on the USAir 8:20pm flight, only to have it delayed by 2 hrs! This would cause them to miss their connection to Detroit! So they hopped on a shuttle and rode over 2 hours to Charlotte to catch their 10:09 flight. Guess what? They missed it by 1 minute!! They would not hold the plane for them!

 

They were finally able to get on the 11pm USAir flight to Cleveland, where they will be picked up by a family member at 12:30am. They will go home for the night then travel to Detroit tomorrow to get their luggage and car!

 

What a mess! Two young kids that have been up since early this morning having to go through this fiasco!

 

:cool:Bill

 

[oncruisecontrol]

An airline this small will go down very quickly and the pilots involved will then be on the unemployment line.

I'm not sure what to do at this point.

 

 

Maybe, maybe not. This is a privately held company, so it's nearly impossible to know for sure how much [capital] is really in their coffers. My personal opinion (not based on anything but my personal feeling...also not worth much) is that Spirit will not let the strike go long enough for it (the strike)to threaten their viability(assuming they want to stay in business). The pilots have called their bluff; I don't think Spirit ever thought it would really come to a strike. I really believe they thought the pilots would cave. Of course, I may be totally wrong. If I am, could it be that the company was looking for a way to "bow out of business"? A possibility, but somehow I don't think so. Even with their inexpensive fares (and presumably lower overhead in relation to the majors), their owners are likely making money hand over fist. I cant imagine they'd let that go easily. Again, could be way off base.

[centurycruiser]

Following this thread, you would think the poor, poor, poor underpaid Spirit pilot makes only $19,000 per year.

 

I've been following this because I have a scheduled flight on Spirit. The Orlando newspaper quotes the chairman of the Air Lines Pilot Association who says that Spirit pilots (after 15 years) make $138 per hour. Now at that rate they would only have to work 137 hours per year to make $19,000 per year. I'll take that job. The link and the quote follow.

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/nationworld/sns-ap-us-spirit-airlines-pilots,0,4067286.story?page=2

Spirit said Sunday it offered to raise pilot pay by about 29 percent over five years — a move that would have cost the company an additional $70 million. Work rule changes would mean pilots would have to fly more to earn that money, however. Spirit's offer also kept a four-day break between every pilot trip, something the company said no other ALPA contract has. The offer also included a $3,000 signing bonus and a larger retirement plan match.

 

"It is surprising to me that ALPA would turn down this generous offer that would have paid senior captains over $200,000 per year," said Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza in a statement. "I am concerned that our employees are being used in a broader political game that may not be in the interest of their careers or their families. This deal should be about Spirit and Spirit only, not about the pilots whose contracts are under negotiation at other ALPA carriers."

 

But

Capt. Sean Creed,

chairman of the Air Lines Pilot Association

group at Spirit, said Sunday that the company's offer only matches inflation. He said that he's looking to have wages for Spirit pilots competitive with those at rivals like JetBlue Airways Corp.

 

Creed noted

that a captain with 10 years' experience at JetBlue earns about $158 an hour; that compares with

$138 an hour for a Spirit captain with 15 years' experience.

 

The $70,000,000 cost to Spirit based on the 440 active pilots works out to be $32,000 a year RAISE!!!!

 

So, boo, hoo hoo.

[tximprov]

I used to work for Ross Perot. When I went to work was during the men have to wear white shirts, women dresses... well a few years later the employees sued ole Ross. I was against it then too. IF you know what you will be paid and are handed a dress code, so you know what you have to wear to work, it seems wrong to me to later complain.

 

We also worked a lot of unpaid overtime ...

 

This is no different, except unions are involved so they think they can dictate to management their terms. I get it, pilots are underpaid ... but they might be surprised that not all college graduates go to work for huge salarys. You just hear about high salarys and start thinking you are entitled too? If the company goes bankrupt ... how are these pilots ahead? The problem is the airfare ... Spirit they said just started making a profit. If oil prices go up there goes the profit .. so air fare either has to go up or something to pay more..are people willing to pay more airfare for Spirit?? I dont know.

 

Id say there are too many pilots for the number of jobs, is why the pay scale is so low for these pilots ...if there were fewer trained pilots willing to work for these salarys, then the salarys would go up, its called how capitalism works ... supply and demand. When unions get involved its a false scale.

 

Lets hope Spirit can find money in the profit margin to pay enough more to make the pilots sign back on... we all want this strike over. ..btw I too used to work for a airline.

 

 

You are exactly the kind of applicant employers love to see coming. You dare not ask "Please Sir, could I have some more?".

If the company goes bankrupt they are not ahead, but they are now equal to all the "suites" and executives who think they are the backbone of business. You can run an airline without the majority of folks in the cubicles. But you have no airline (or business) without the folks doing the work. Your scenario is not how capitalism works, it is how endentured servetude works.

[oncruisecontrol]

Following this thread, you would think the poor, poor, poor underpaid Spirit pilot makes only $19,000 per year.

 

I've been following this because I have a scheduled flight on Spirit. The Orlando newspaper quotes the chairman of the Air Lines Pilot Association who says that Spirit pilots (after 15 years) make $138 per hour. Now at that rate they would only have to work 137 hours per year to make $19,000 per year. I'll take that job. The link and the quote follow.

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/nationworld/sns-ap-us-spirit-airlines-pilots,0,4067286.story?page=2

Spirit said Sunday it offered to raise pilot pay by about 29 percent over five years — a move that would have cost the company an additional $70 million. Work rule changes would mean pilots would have to fly more to earn that money, however. Spirit's offer also kept a four-day break between every pilot trip, something the company said no other ALPA contract has. The offer also included a $3,000 signing bonus and a larger retirement plan match.

 

"It is surprising to me that ALPA would turn down this generous offer that would have paid senior captains over $200,000 per year," said Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza in a statement. "I am concerned that our employees are being used in a broader political game that may not be in the interest of their careers or their families. This deal should be about Spirit and Spirit only, not about the pilots whose contracts are under negotiation at other ALPA carriers."

 

But

Capt. Sean Creed,

chairman of the Air Lines Pilot Association

group at Spirit, said Sunday that the company's offer only matches inflation. He said that he's looking to have wages for Spirit pilots competitive with those at rivals like JetBlue Airways Corp.

 

Creed noted

that a captain with 10 years' experience at JetBlue earns about $158 an hour; that compares with

$138 an hour for a Spirit captain with 15 years' experience.

 

The $70,000,000 cost to Spirit based on the 440 active pilots works out to be $32,000 a year RAISE!!!!

 

So, boo, hoo hoo.

 

 

If you believe that Spirit will give a $32,000 raise to each of their pilots based on these figures (and mathmatics?..hmmm) you've quoted as well as Ben Baldanza's word (er...lawyer-written rhetoric), then you do so without ALL of the facts. I do not claim to have all of the facts, but it is clearly more complicated than the "synopsis" you've laid out here.