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Spirit Airlines Pilots Strike

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
2005 ... and I'm not gonna' tell you 'who' ... but they were nicknamed 'COBRA Airlines' throughout the industry ... (they'll strike at anything) ... :)
 

mentor

Registered User
Spirit Pilots: ON STRIKE
Hundreds of pilots walk off the job to demand fair contract

Washington—At 5:01 a.m., June 12, Spirit pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), went on strike against their company—and will not return to the cockpit until a fair and equitable contract is negotiated. Pilot negotiators agreed to extend the strike deadline twice in order to review final proposals put forth by both parties to keep the airline running. In the end, both sides could not reach an agreement.

“Immediately after 5:00 a.m., the Spirit Pilot Master Executive Council, as authorized by our pilots, called for and instituted a lawful strike against our management,” announced Captain Sean Creed, head of the Spirit unit of ALPA.

“Spirit pilots are willing to withdraw their services to get the contract they deserve,” said Captain John Prater, president of ALPA. “Every one of the 53,000 pilots of ALPA stands with them as they go on strike. As pilots, our livelihood is in the air—not on the picket line—but the inability of Spirit management to negotiate a contract that adequately compensates our professional members has created this dispute. I urge Spirit management to reconsider their position on the value of their experienced and professional airline pilots.”

The strike comes after nearly four years of contract negotiations and numerous attempts by the pilots to find a middle ground with management and avoid a strike. All Spirit pilots, especially first officers, have been working at below-market rates for years, and under substandard work rules.

For the past week, pilot representatives have been meeting with company officials in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement. However, after two extensions that pushed the deadline until early Saturday morning, no agreement was reached, so the pilots were forced to use the last weapon in their arsenal and call for a lawful strike.

“No one wanted this strike—certainly not this pilot group. We have sacrificed so much to see this company prosper. Now we are sacrificing our paychecks until we get a contract that reflects our contributions to this airline,” said Creed. “This contract is not just for the pilots who currently fly for Spirit, right now. We have a responsibility to maintain our profession and pass down a legacy of a job worth having.”
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
Amerijet went on strike August of last year....
Roger that; I was kinda' thinkin' along the lines of strikes that 'made a dent' in the system ...

Here's part of the problem: check out the various pay scales for Jet Blue, AirTran, and of course, Spirit ... you can do a side-by-side comparison graph between two of the lines with the link near the top of the chart.

Spirit makes big corporate bucks and pays their pilots peanuts in comparison to the competition. Spirit's pay scale sucks big time.
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
My guess is Northwest. Do I win the car and the million bucks? :D

Yes, you win.

Please forward your bank account number(s) and password(s) to me so I may give them to my attorney to begin the transfer of funds from my bank in Nigeria to yours ...
 

desertoasis

Something witty.
None
Contributor
Please forward your bank account number(s) and password(s) to me so I may give them to my attorney to begin the transfer of funds from my bank in Nigeria to yours ...

I'm still waiting on a few other multimillion dollar deposits. Apparently a lot of rich people are dying in Nigeria with whom I share a name.
 

FrankTheTank

Professional Pot Stirrer
pilot
Here's part of the problem: check out the various pay scales for Jet Blue, AirTran, and of course, Spirit ... you can do a side-by-side comparison graph between two of the lines with the link near the top of the chart.



Neat site but not too sure about the numbers... Cause FEDEX ones are wrong, very wrong in fact. The most obvious is 727 & 757 are the same but not according to the site. Many others that I notice off the bat so I am skeptical about the data. I prefer Airline Pilot Central for pay comparisons. Looks more accurate and reasonably updated/verified.

However, I agree with your point!
 

PropAddict

Now with even more awesome!
pilot
Contributor
Amerijet went on strike August of last year.

I think I would, too. Their planes sound worse than P-3's:

Wikipedia said:
Amerijet have no lavatories facilities aboard any of their Boeing 727s, and the pilots have to instead use the "pee bags" provided by the company

A4sforever said:
Here's part of the problem: check out the various pay scales for Jet Blue, AirTran, and of course, Spirit ... you can do a side-by-side comparison graph between two of the lines with the link near the top of the chart.
So, according to that chart if I want to fly on civvie street, UPS and FEDEX should be at the top of my list.
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
Neat site but not too sure about the numbers... Cause FEDEX ones are wrong, very wrong in fact. The most obvious is 727 & 757 are the same but not according to the site. Many others that I notice off the bat so I am skeptical about the data. I prefer Airline Pilot Central for pay comparisons. Looks more accurate and reasonably updated/verified.

However, I agree with your point!

Yeah ... I knew it wasn't 100% correct, but I thought it worth posting to illustrate for the rest of the guys some of the rationale behind the strike. It gives a glimpse into the range, comparisons, and relative disparities between airlines when the 1st and 15th of the month rolls around ...
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
Reading the comments section on the big news sites (generally a bad idea any day of the week...the dregs of society can post whatever they want) about the strike only infuriated me more.

People are clueless about where those 9 dollar fares on Spirit come from...it ain't out of the goodness of the management's hearts...somebody somewhere is paying for it.
 

Catmando

Keep your knots up.
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Having had personal and unpleasant experience at another airline with Spirit's part owner and chairman Bill Franke, I do not envy Spirit's pilots.

Franke hates pilots, and he likes to run a "cheap pizza" airline. He once locked out and fired 500 aircraft mechanics without notice... two weeks before Christmas! He is a ruthless SOB.

An airline CEO who has no pictures or models of aircraft, nor anything related to his airline in his office, is not the type of CEO you want to fly for.
 
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