Bucking Bar

Timbo,

Or they can put in ten years at a express carrier.

My how we have improved the profession on our watch.

Most are all around forty with no retirement, no seniority and no longevity.

Timbo

I got to lose my first Capt. seat to Com Air's RJ's, so I'm pretty well aware of what happened there.

I was constantly calling the DALPA phone in 1992-3, asking why we weren't putting them (and ASA pilots) onto our seniority list. Then there was JC and the RJDC, and the rest is a sad, ugly history of how we allowed over 50% of our domestic flying to be outsourced to cheaper labor.

We are our own worst enemies.

John Carr

Just a little addition to more accurately reflect the situation for many.

If you're talking about age/vision, didn't really happen on "your watch". Nor was it ANYTHING pilots themselves could control.

And remember, it wasn't that long ago you were a regional pilot. You know, "part of what's WRONG with this career. All those regional pilots willing to take jobs for low wages" according to all the legacy pilots that VOLUNTARILY gave away scope for a big paycheck before 9/11. Not so sure I'd go patting yourself on the back quite yet.

Unless you want to grow a stache, put on some weight, and become one of the guys in big color pictures in the ALPA magazine that likes to brag about what a good job ALPA national is doing.

Truth.

Bucking Bar

Timbo,

You made the right call.

But who negotiated with Delta Management? JC or Capt. Giambusso? Not to pick on him specifically, but it is important to understand the order of things. Had there not been an acquisition and stripping of the assets (code and scope) without a merger ... then there would have been no RJDC.

JC gets a lot of press because of his inflammatory rhetoric, but in the scheme of things he had little power to effect his fate, or that of his pilots. At the time ALPA (Duane Woerth) absolutely forbade an express carrier even talking with mainline management.

IMHO those who do have the power have the responsibility. That would be us.

Bucking Bar

John,

My fight against outsourcing has not changed a bit since I first got paid to fly an airplane in 1993.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of express flying. Delta used to perform that work. We can't ask pilots ot to accept jobs they badly need, no more than we can realistically tell our own pilots not to pick up open time.

We should make the same fight ALPA fought since it's inception against alter ego replacement of our pilot group with more inexperienced and lowly paid pilots.

John Carr

Mine neither, what a coincidence.

FACT, you had NOTHING to do with pilots being able to be hired with looser vision/age criteria.

FACT, even though you may have voted for scope recapture on the last CBA, it's STILL a loss when compared previous levels of outsourced ASMs/departures/block hours, whatever.

Sorry, but we really haven't come that far in certain regards.

John Carr

I would agree.

But like it or not, those were the principles that allowed people like you to get a job at was once known as "the commuters".

When they expanded to the regionals with jet equipment, along came better pay, and better working conditions than previous. Things you got to enjoy while biding your time, waiting on a call from DAL.

LIKE I SAID, I AGREE WITH YOUR STATEMENT.

I just find it ironic that some are so critical of a system that allowed them to gain the experience to arrive where they did.

Bucking Bar

John,

When express carriers are walking in the door at Delta Air Lines and doing deals with our management without the knowledge or participation of the Delta pilots we risk losing control.

This thing may crash on our watch. It's like a little tire delamination which sends out shrapnel causing systemic damage. Not merging the express carriers was a ruptured fuel tank. 120 seat platforms with MD88 like operating statistics is a chunk of tire in the engine core and compressor damage. Letting them negotiate with Delta management behind our back is the loss of a hydraulic system.

As good Pilots monitoring do, we are calling out the systemic problems and we have the QRH on our laps turned to the right checklist.

Tell your Reps you want the Delta MEC placed in the recognition section of our contract. We have to deal with the systems issues.

Bucking Bar

John,

They see something wrong and want to fix it. It is not ironic.

Anyone near age 50 was raised in a culture that informally segregated racial minorities and commonly used derogatory terms as pronouns. It is not ironic that today we do not engage in that behavior.

HIREME

THIS. One airline name...one airline job. All at mainline