Interesting developments indeed.
Legacy wrote:TN, you just need to be a wee bit nicer.
Yeah, that's probably not going to happen.
I think what he may have meant by betrayal is this.
In February pilots have said to management (even GS), I think the family and I are going to pick up and move to YYC. Are we going to be opening up bases in YYZ? Answer: NO no bases (not even a "possibly we are considering it or anything remotely of the sort"). Said pilot says ok, spends $$$$ moving and gets settled in YYC. A month later, "hey we are opening up bases!". No need to tell you what the reaction is.
Now before you go on and say "Well the company has the right blah blah blah", we as employees have the right to the truth. You can NOT tell me they made a split second decision on opening bases and did not see this coming, or even the possibility of it coming, one month prior.
Now if you can't put yourself in these employees position and see where they are coming from, it will speak volumes of your character and I will realize it's pointless to debate with you on any matter. Like I said, walk a mile. You say you did but I highly doubt this situation has happened to you.
Interesting story, I haven’t heard that version. Unfortunate for sure if it’s true. I’m going to look into the other side of the story but regardless, it doesn’t change anything. I don’t know Gregg Saretsky, never met the man. I’ve seen a few of his interviews on BNN but that’s it. Despite that, I am very comfortable saying I don’t think he’s stupid. I don’t know why he would state something and do a 180 two weeks later but I’m pretty sure he didn’t do it just to piss off some pilots, there has to be a reason. CEOs of publicly traded companies are governed by lots of disclosure and non-disclosure rules. They also have to report to their Board of Directors and they are very reluctant to disclose anything that might give their competitors any kind of advance notice of a change to a business plan.
Now here’s a shocker for you Legacy, I have lived that exact scenario, just the timelines were reversed. Back in the early eighties I was in the midst of my second layoff and got a job with an upstart regional carrier in the States (my wife is an American beauty). During my interview the VP Ops told me there would never be another base for the company. Almost a year to the day later, I was called into the Chief Pilot’s office and given the good news that I was getting my upgrade but unfortunately we were opening a new base and I would have to move for it. They gave me two weeks to make my decision. I had known my upgrade was coming so three months prior we bought our first house, we were still unpacking boxes. Was I mad? Hell yes. Was I betrayed? No. I thought the VP Ops was a dick, especially when I confronted him on it and he said, are you ready for it; “no one is holding a gun to your head. It’s your choice”. Sadly, it’s just business and plans change. My salary and working conditions were not even in the same universe as a senior WJ FO, I was at the poverty line. I was not in a position to take a bypass, we needed the money and my wife couldn’t quit her job and move because she made way more than I did. So I talked to all the important people in my life, made pro/con lists and stared at the ceiling when I should have been sleeping. Then I made a choice to commute, and start sending out resumes again. I commuted for about a year and hated it but at no time during that period did it occur to me that I deserved any kind of compensation or special treatment because I was commuting. That was simply my choice.
It’s funny how life works though. If I hadn’t been faced with that situation I wouldn’t have been sending out resumes so I wouldn’t have gotten my next job, which was my first corporate job and set me on the path to what was for me, my dream job.
Sometimes life deals you a shit hand. You just play it best you can and wait for a better one. Bitching about it does nothing and unions can’t stop companies from making business decisions. As soon as they can, the company is finished.
I will own up to working for America West for about 10 years which accounts for the bulk of my airline experience. As far as my corporate flying, all I can say is I flew for a bank and then managed a fractional ownership group. I am still under non-disclosure agreements with both those companies so I can only talk about those jobs in generalities. Very rich people are funny that way.
