Jetjok

When you guys (IPA) instituted your MOU, I thought it was a great idea. I couldn't understand why everyone in your bottom 300 wouldn't sign up for it. As well, I knew that lots of other guys, guys who had their financial houses in order would look at the MOU as an opportunity to take some well earned time off, although without pay, while still helping the very junior guys that your MOU was created to assist.

Being not of UPS, I never did learn what percentage of junior guys did in fact sign up for the MOU, but in my mind, each and every one should have, because (if UPS got the savings they "needed") then their jobs, while pared back some, were at least still there, with all the benefits that UPS is well known for.

As I read and re-read this thread, I'm struck by some of the accusatory comments that lead one to believe that those at the bottom of your seniority list are victims. Victims of the senior guys, and victims of a company, whose sole purpose is to make their lives a living hell. Last I looked, no one was drafted (without a right of refusal) into your pilot group. Each and every one of you guys (except of course the original "24") went through an arduous admittance process, and were successful in that quest. No, if you have any one to blame for your situation, it's yourself, and perhaps to a larger degree, the global economy as well as lousy timing.

Hopefully your company won't furlough, but if they do, it's not anyone on the union side of things that caused that. The IPA has been, and probably always will be a shining light. Your togetherness and professionalism are examples for other unions to follow. Regardless of the fact that that togetherness comes from working for a company whose intention is to squeeze each and every red cent they can out of their operation, and that (in the beginning at least) all the pilots were getting screwed equally.

That leads me to the last point of my ramblings, and that is this "first year pay" thing. When I started to fly for PanAm, our first year pay was about $18K. Then when I got hired by UPS, I believe the pay jumped up to about $34K. At FedEx it was about $42K. As with UPS, our FedEX first year pay has not moved one penny north in all these years. I don't know why, but our two companies just don't want to increase that pay, and personally (P.C. Alert) I think that that is ok. I know all the arguments about first year pay and how the "senior guys" should look out for the "junior guy's welfare", but I also believe that first year pay is sort of a rite of passage. As well, at UPS and FedEx (after we unionized) both of our first year guys are at-will employees who are not protected under the union flag, nor do they pay dues. Now, before any of you get your panties in a wad about this paragraph, understand that I too would like to see first year pay increased. Not at the expense of later years pay scale, but from other monies in the contractual money pile. However, it's just not going to happen. To find out why, one would probably need to be on the management side of the table, or in our (FedEx) case, in Fred Smith's bedroom.

Anyway, I wish you all good luck with your issues and I want you to remember that, as Ben Franklin said, as he was signing the Declaration of Independence, "We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

JJ

gremlin

Of the bottom 300 pilots at UPS 296 signed up for the MOU. The bottom 400 pilots provided 33% of all the savings generated. (Info from the Andy Murphy presentation.)

g

__________________
Eat when you can
Sleep when you can
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Airbum

Jetjok,

almost every single bottom 300 guy signed up for something, Saying that I agree with your comments

Shaggy1970

Maybe the question that the Andy Murphy Presentation should answer is how much the top 300 pilots at UPS donated to the MOU?

Dead Tired

Yes let's see what happens next time. I view the MOU as the lesser of two evils. The nasty stuff that will kick-in should a furlough happen is much worse than all of us kicking in a few $$ to keep it from happening. And yes it will be a very interesting year!

Yours truly,

Senior Scumbag

SaltyDog

Shaggy,
Despite the , just looked at slides 25 and 27 of AM slide presentation. Numerically, all fleets and seats contributed at 50% or better (MIA CPT may only be 49ish %). Some CPT seat fleets over 60% participated. The ANC MD CPT rate was over 80%. Slide 27 shows the dollars each seat and fleet contributed.
Rough cuts: S/O's contributed around $7million. Junior 400 (F/O and S/O) contributed "33% of 82.5 million" or $27.225 million, Captains around $36 Million. The rest of the F/O's and S/O's contibuted around $19.5 million.
Overall, 67% of the entire group and 99% of the junior in the direct line of fire responded. If the RDG issues could be resolved, believe many more would take that route. I took 3 of the other options, but no RDG since it was many moving parts (unlike a straight out leave or JS)

757upspilot

As usual a fact filled post, thx