Thursday, July 26, 2012
I. CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH?
The simple truth is that while the brand name is arguably “United” (or is it “United-Continental Holdings”?), our flights are operated by “Continental” crews, and above all, we have a mandate to be truthful to our passengers.
In an effort to comply with the guidance of our FOM, and in the absence of an explicit directive from management to the contrary, we suggest incorporating the following as a greeting to our passengers:
“. . . this is United flight ##, operated by a Continental Airlines Flight Crew . . .”
Sorry, Mr. Smisek, but until the day comes when we are no longer “subsidiary” or “legacy” Continental pilots, we will continue to refer to ourselves as such. Hint: That will happen when we are working together under a joint contract and a single seniority list. It may be a while. Get used to it.
II. ‘TIS THE SEASON
No—not the season for giving, but more for receiving . . . unwanted phone calls, that is! We are in the height of the summer travel season, and as expected, that also means the height of junior manning “opportunities.” Of course, it seems to us that we have been at the “height” of junior manning since the beginning of this year.
Nonetheless, it’s time for another reminder.
Under our contract, you are under no obligation to answer your phone on days off. If you don’t want to be harassed by Crew Scheduling, or if you don’t want to be forced to work on your days off, then you are better off not taking their calls rather than innocently answering your phone and engaging in a dialogue with them that will lead to banging your head against a wall, an unnecessary discussion with your ACP, or even a “Miss Trip” on your record. (Yes, even though it was a scheduled day off, you could end up with an MT. And, yes, you are in the Twilight Zone.)
So, if you would like to avoid all the drama, we suggest you heed the following advice. If you don’t recognize the caller ID, DON’T ANSWER YOUR PHONE. If you get calls—especially repetitive calls—at strange hours, DON’T ANSWER YOUR PHONE. If you don’t want to risk having to explain to your ACP why you are unavailable, DON’T ANSWER YOUR PHONE.
Seriously—let it go to voice mail. If the call is that important, they will leave a message. We promise.
By the way, here’s a little-known tidbit that you can’t believe is true until it happens to you: regardless of how or why you make contact with Crew Scheduling (including initiating a call to them), it is considered “contact,” and they can junior-man you. Even if you called to innocently point out a mistake they have made (and make the world a better place), you are putting yourself “in harm’s way.” This has come up in the past, and our management is quoted as saying that they don’t need—or want—our help to point out their mistakes.
Yep. We can’t make this stuff up.
III. FEEL LIKE A LAB RAT?
You might. You were part of an experiment. It went a little something like this.
Hypothesis: Pilots should be able rest when they are told, regardless of circadian rhythms.
Experiment: Assign pilots two duty periods in one calendar day. See how they respond after completing a red-eye flight, being forced to sleep all day, then flying again that night.
Assumption: Since the assignment is legal “on paper,” there should be no problems.
Conclusion: Fatigue calls double. Pilots unable to rest adequately to operate second duty period safely. Experiment FAILED.
As a result, the company has changed parameters of PBS so that if you finish a pairing after 0200, PBS cannot assign another pairing that same calendar day. However, if you finish a pairing before 0200, you must have a minimum of 15 hours scheduled between duty periods. This applies to PBS awards only, and can be “waived” through trip trading, with the obvious caveat: make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for fatigue if you do so.
Also, although the logic of mitigating fatigue applies to all pilots, it only currently applies to lineholders through our PBS awards (for now). Even though it doesn’t directly cover reserve pilots, the same risks apply, and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
IV. WHAT THE NMB SAYS ABOUT YOUR FUTURE
Unfortunately, we can’t tell you. The briefing we received last week during our Joint MEC Meeting was held in “closed and off the record” session. We wish we could share with you every detail—really! But it will have to wait for now.
What we can tell you is this: even though the Company has no true business plan that includes “regional jets” (a misnomer these days, to be sure) larger than 50 seats, our management is looking around at our competitors and salivating over the thought of tinkering with jets having 70 seats or more. They don’t know what they would do with them, but like a kid in a candy store, they know they’ve just got to have them!
In their eyes, our competitors have set a new standard in the industry for outsourced flying, and they want to be just like them. (Well, sort of. They want the ability to outsource our flying in those fancy new jets, but they don’t want to pay us what our competitors are being paid. So no—they don’t really want to be just like our competitors.)
Your representatives, as members of LC 153, are still firm in our belief that any airplane with more than 50 seats should be flown by mainline pilots at mainline rates on mainline property. But make no mistake—holding that line will lead us to the fight of our careers.
Some of the other highlights from last week’s MEC meeting include:
• passage of a motion requesting support by the union in directing the Company to abide by provisions of USERRA mandating that pilots who served in active duty be treated as if they were employed full-time with respect to compensation and certain benefits.
• failure of a resolution requesting that FTFPL pilots who are on reserve be paid a flat rate of 85 hours.
• failure of a resolution calling for more efficiency and transparency in the way information is disseminated from the master chairman and committee officers to members of the MEC.
• appointment of a committee chairman to the Financial Oversight Committee.
• various committee briefings, including Safety, Scheduling, Grievance, and Negotiating.
V. SEEING THROUGH THE FOG
Grasping at Straws
That is about the only explanation we can come up with for the recent “unofficial” message displayed in CCS requesting notes for all sick calls. The bottom line is that unless your sick call falls under the terms of Section 14.4 of our current CBA, which states (in part):
A. The Company has reasonable cause to believe that misuse of Sick Leave by the pilot may have occurred, or
B. The pilot’s absence from duty occurred in conjunction with his vacation period or a Holiday as defined in Section 2 . . .
then you are under no obligation to provide any sort of “note” or proof of illness. If you are directly and personally asked to provide a note after showing for duty, then you should, by all means, proceed directly to an appropriate health-care facility and request one. Of course, by then you are likely to have recovered from whatever illness prevented you from performing your professional duties, so the note will only state that you were seen by a health-care provider on whatever date it was requested. Nothing more is required, and nothing more should be provided.
This is merely a cowardly attempt at intimidation by the Company.
It is worth noting that if we respond to these “threats” by coming to work when we are truly and legitimately ill, and sick calls decline as a result, the company will certainly try to show a correlation between the two and use that as evidence in their attempt to include us in an injunction.
It is important that regardless of any threats by the Company, or even any requests by the union, that if you are fit to fly, you should come to work as scheduled. Conversely, if you are sick for any reason—physical or mental—then you have a professional obligation to not operate an aircraft. Only you can make that determination, and your judgment should not be clouded by concerns of disciplinary action.
VI. MEETING REMINDER
Our next Local Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 23, at the Proud Bird near LAX. In addition to a couple of resolutions that will be presented by our members, it will be a good chance to talk about where we are (and where we are not) with respect to contract negotiations.
And of course, food will be available. (That always seems to get your attention!)
VII. FIVE BY FIVE
We are proud of our pilots! With a participation rate of 94% in the strike vote, not only did you surpass our expectations, you sent a clear message to the company and to the traveling public that you are not happy with the state of our airline and are ready to act when legally released. We know our “professional managers” took note, and we hope that the BOD did as well. We plan to remind them frequently.
Great job everyone!
Rob, Mike, and Josh
Visit our website:
www.LEC153.org