GOOD NEWS for the Regionals

[ASACRJwife]

Delta Connection Union Pilot Leaders Present Unified Front
Friday July 14, 3:20 pm ET

CINCINNATI, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The pilot union leaders of the airlines that make up Delta Connection, the operation that provides feed for Delta Air Lines, announced yesterday that they will work together to ensure that their compensation, work rules, and quality of life are not sacrificed, despite current pressures to drive down costs.
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Pilot leaders from Chautauqua Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Nasdaq: SKYW - News), Mesa Air Group (Nasdaq: MESA - News), and Comair (Other OTC: DALRQ.PK - News) met yesterday in Cincinnati, for the first time, to develop strategies, express support for one another, and discuss shared goals for promoting the collective quality of their jobs and trade unionism among their respective pilot groups.

Speaking for the four groups, Capt. J.C. Lawson, chairman of the Comair pilots' Master Executive Council and an Executive Vice President of the Air Line Pilots Association, stated, "Our managements often play us against one another by asking for concessions in exchange for additional aircraft or flying from mainline code-share partners. These are marketing decisions and should not be based on pilot pay."

Regional carrier pilots are under increased pressure from their managements to provide pay and benefit concessions and relax working rules, despite the fact that, in most cases, these airlines are posting profits.

"It's a classic tactic to use the threat of fleet deployments and flying to divide and conquer us at the expense of our livelihoods," said Capt. Lawson. "This practice is detrimental to our careers as well as the general quality of commercial air travel, and it must stop now."

Chautauqua Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings, Inc. and the Chautauqua pilots are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 747.

Comair is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc. Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SkyWest, Inc. Pilots of these carriers and the Mesa Air Group are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA). Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world's largest pilot union representing more than 62,000 cockpit crewmembers at 40 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at http://www.alpa.org.

[Kristie]

Regional carrier pilots are under increased pressure from their managements to provide pay and benefit concessions and relax working rules, despite the fact that, in most cases, these airlines are posting profits.

aroo? regionals can't afford to cut pay and benefits, those guys don't get paid enough as it is!!

[Bigsweetie]

woohoo! More foodstamps baby! **Sarcasm**

[trigeek]

I'm assuming Skywest wasn't present since they are not union?

[Kristie]

Yet!