Originally Posted by
Kellwolf
Problems started LONG before the Saabs started getting parked. Management can read (at least I assume so), so they knew what it would cost on that first vacancy. VACANCY, not displacement. We had guys sitting around going from the -200 to the -900 that just needed differences training for 3 months. By the time displacements hit, the vacancy still wasn't dealt with. If the company had offered several, smaller vacancies on a rolling schedule, they could have handled it rather than forcing a training bottleneck. The JCBA worked exactly as designed: it was there to prevent the company from dragging their feet on training events and if they did, the pilots were compensated for it. Management decided they wanted to try to get it all done at one time rather than run multiple vacancies. The displacements that were on the horizon made it worse.
Problem is with multiple vacancies, you will have guys jump like crazy and go to/from whatever they need only to jump to another position again. Case in point, I found out that the -900 at original 9E would only be differences training for me, and not a seat lock. My plan was to bid over to the ATL -900 for one month to satisfy Emirates' requirement of at least 50 hrs in a jet greater than 30 tons. I lived in DTW at the time, and considered commuting to ATL just to get the time, and then on the very next vacancy, bid back to the -200. That is just one example, there were plenty of other pilots who were contemplating moves just like this. Multiple vacancies, especially when only differences (no seatlock) are involved, can cost lots of moves.
Let's face it. You weren't doing this out of the goodness of your heart. Let's not forget the mindset you were in during the time. "Colgan and Mesaba guys stole my upgrade" was probably the best way to put it. How long do you put it on hold? Long enough for XJ and Colgan guys to be furloughed? Someone was going to get wronged one way or the other. That's the way it goes with mergers. I had guys from Colgan jump me on the seniority list, too.
Doing it for the goodness of what was best for us as a company, and us as original 9E pilots. Upgrading original 9E pilots would have cost less, and offered more liquidity long term. All 9E FOs needed was upgrade training. No differences, etc. I already answered the "for how long" question. The answer is also in the company proposed term sheet. In the event of future mergers, kept separate until an integrated fenced operation was in place. The way they were forced to do it, the list JUST came out and two months later we had everyone jumping across on the "bid whatever you want!" method. And yes, sending people home that long with pay was complete money-wasted BS.
IMO, CS did enough to shoot himself and the 9E MEC in the foot as it was. I don't think XJ would have had to fight too hard at all. DTW might have been the only base that wasn't ready to see a regime change.
Should never have been commisioned into his position in the first place. Plenty of people in DTW wanted him gone, in fact, he had just lost the CA rep position in a democratic election in February. You'd think the message was clear from the DTW pilots, but just a couple months later, it was announced he'd be the new MEC Chairman.
Heaven forbid the union make the company stick to an agreement....
Management set the numbers, though.
That agreement only works when you have a complete fenced operation merger that is complete. 9E Corp was nowhere near that at the end of 2011. The massive training and displacement costs did put a hurt on liquidity. As for the numbers, absolutely agree. Though I think management realized we were severely short-staffed for Summer 2010, and that's when we started the huge hiring and upgrade cycle. It was unfortunate that some senile idiot didn't account for that in his arbitration award.