Originally Posted by Fins Up

The following are things I have seen in my six and a half years that have transformed me from a NO-voter to a YES-voter.

1. Pay raise(?). A couple years ago we got a raise bringing our hourly rates to near industry standard. At the same time the premium trigger was raised from 70 hours to 78 hours. This is a net-zero increase for a lot of pilots, particularly now that bid divisors are lower.

2. 3A. I did not sign up for 3A but I have been following it. The company tells us that our pilot group can band together in the event of a merger to fight seniority list integration issues, but tells the courts that all pilots are under individual agreements and should have to file their 3A claims individually. The company will say whatever serves its purpose best depending on whom it is addressing.

3. Night Override. The FSM dictates that pilots will be paid night override for the entirety of all legs scheduled to operate within the window of circadian low - 0100 to 0500. The company immediately started scheduling Caribbean redeye turns to block out time at 0501. There is no way to explain that other than the company doesn't want to pay you for staying up all night.

4. International Override. Again, passed in the FSM but does not happen as it was advertised. Only pilots flying to BOG or SJO get the override. Thus, this rig only applies to a small percentage of pilots. This is not a true international rig.

5. Insurance. Need I say more? I will. My deductible is more than tripling. Our copay/co-insurance is going up. Premiums are not going down. ER copay was brought back but is TWICE was it was before. Sure the company is contributing "rewards money", but that is for a limited time only and does not come close to making up the different in new plan versus the old plan. Plus, most of the opportunities to get rewards dollars will cost me a lot of time and money.

6. Facade of our committees. I sincerely appreciate all the hard work the PVC and other pilot committees have done. But when the company makes such a huge negative change to our insurance and doesn't include the R&I committee in the process, it is obvious the company does not respect the system that it put in place. Thank you to the committee members, but it's time to move on and 'play in the big leagues'.

7. Policy changes by email. When FOM Appendix B (uniform rules) came out, it seemed obvious to me that it was, at least in part, designed to do away with the ALPA lanyards. (Call it conspiracy theory, but that's what I believe.) This was the first FOM change that occurred via email instead of Info Notice or FOM Revision. This tells me that the company can do whatever it wants whenever it wants to affect our working environment.

8. Dave Barger has said numerous times that having unions will reduce the company's ability to be flexible or nimble during tough economic times (or words to that effect). What does that mean to you? To me it means the company wants to be able to take away from us to prop up the operation if necessary. That option being so readily available to our leadership is completely unacceptable.

9. The weakness of our Pilot Employment Agreements and "5 documents". I understand that law firms in DC who were consulted regarded these documents told the PVC something along the lines of, "Well, uh, we've never seen anything like this before. It's a CBA world, but we'll do the best we can for you." The wording in our documents is very weak and easily defeated. Plus, if an acquiring carrier doesn't honor the document, what are you going to do about it? We're pretty much on our own. There is supposedly a $2mil fund available to the pilot group to help with excess costs regarding integration. Where's the money? Who is in charge of it? It can be divvied up so pilots can take their share and go their own way. Even as a total sum, $2mil won't last long in a drawn out legal process.

10. We have been riding the coat tails of union pilot groups for far too long. Our pay, work rules (even as weak as they our), CASS, KCM, safety regulations, etc. are all courtesy of pilots who have paid into a process to make our profession better. We are not contributors. What has the jetblue pilot group done to advance the airline pilot profession? It's time we start pulling our weight.

11. "It's just business". Our leadership is responsible to the shareholders to make profits. They are going to do what they need to do to keep the shareholders happy. Us voting in favor of a CBA is also just business. Based on items 1-10, it is apparent to me that if anyone is going to take care of the pilots, it's going to have to be the pilots.

For the good of our pilot group here at JetBlue, please vote YES.