Originally Posted by
jabone
So when someone uninformed comes on here and starts reading about time "worked" (and I put that in quotes now so I don't get slammed.) at 66 hours a month, which is less than half of the normal work month, people wonder what is going on. I am sure you have heard the comments.
I am on here to better understand why, to gain some empathy, AND to see what it is that I am dealing with on a better level.
I have thick skin, so I can take whatever you guys dish out.
Another measure is something called time away from base (TAFB). I'm not at AA, but over the years I've had a lot of months with 250 to over 300 hours away from base. I might get paid 75 hours of pay for 250 hours away from my family. Throw in a commute to another city and you can see why pilots are reluctant to spend even more tie on the road for less money.
Labor at AMR gave some concessions a few years ago. The company wanted more, and said they needed it to be competitive. The problem is the other creditors don't give in kind. How does labor feel if they are the only party making concessions. I don't blame the pilots for not making concessions earlier. UAL, DAL, NWA all made major concessions to prevent bankruptcy, and the companies went bankrupt anyway. The only difference was that now they started negotiating their contract from a MUCH weaker position. AMR is far overreaching in their demands to the pilot group. They've set a bad stage for reasonable negotiations.
My guess is the pilots want a strong company and they're willing to work hard in a solid partnership to achieve that. Management has so alienated the group that it's ridiculous. They're are a lot of smart guys with degrees in finance making a boat load of money in this process. Hopefully they'll realize that airlines need the pilots to be on board for an airline to operate. An airline can't fly without pilots anymore than they can fly without planes.