Spirit Airlines Pilots walk out

[Merlyn]

First off yes, we warned passengers of a possible strike even to the point of placing billboards announcing the same at three of our major cities.

I have been pleasantly surprised and gratified by the vast outpouring of support from our flight attendants, other company employees as well as all the pilots of other airlines who walked our picket line with us. We cannot thank you all enough and I know that we will return the favour when you need us.

I have also been appalled at the breathtaking arrogance, stupidity, ignorance, and cowardice of you management suckups who criticised our painful decision to strike. To those dimwits I say this.

Believe it or not we are all at least as smart and sane as you so give us credit for having thought long and hard before we made the difficult decision to strike. There is not time enough to explain the shabby, degrading treatment that management calmly and deliberately administered to us over the last 3 years with the calculated goal of destroying our morale in order to impose a concessionary contract that would have reduced our wages and made us at will employees at a time when the company was making massive profits (over 100 million USD last year)and planning a major expansion.

To those who say we agreed to our terms and conditions and should abide by them forever consider this. Management threw that last contract away with their concessionary proposals. They did not agree to begin negotiating off our last contract until shortly before the strike deadline. That last contract was agreed upon at a time when our flying was vastly different than it is now. The compensation package was fair enough for day, domestic flying into secondary airports with comfortable turn times and one or two legs per day. It proved woefully inadaquate to compensate for 3 or 4 leg days with 30 minute turns operating at night, over water, on the back side of the clock into international caribbean, central, and south american destinations with the challenges of active volcanos, high altitude airports, language dificulties, inadaquate alternates and the support limitations of a bare bones carrier like spirit.

Do what you like with your own career but as far as your negative opinions on this great pilot group who took a brave and necessary stand for our careers, just shut your mouths and crawl back under your rocks. You disgust me.