SPOILER ALERT - Nitefr8dog, you should probably hit the back button right now because you are not going to like what I'm going to say or where I'm saying it. If you decide to read on, I am not responsible if you get your feelings hurt again.

Word on the street is that ATSG/ABX is going to notify 14 of the 20 pilots scheduled to be furloughed after Dec. 31 that their furlough is canceled. The other six will have their furlough date extended to Jan 14.

I doubt management will give much in the way of explanation. Maybe they just want to buy some time to see what happens after the first of the year? Maybe they just like to prolong the fear among the pilot group?

This news has a positive aspect. For the 14 pilots who get their furloughs canceled, this is good news. For the six that get extended, worst case scenario is that they, at least, get one more paycheck before they hit the street.

My concern is that ATSG/ABX already did this earlier this year. They announced a furlough then partial cancellation while stringing some at the lower end of the list along with several extensions.

ATSG/ABX has a strong furlough protection with a 30 notice followed by some other enhancements. This is superior to ATSG/ATI, which only gets a 14 day notice and COBRA.

The problem is that, by announcing speculative furloughs then extending them, the management could be doing this as a tactic to increase their flexibility at the expense of the pilots. Let's take this to an extreme. What if the management announces they need to furlough the bottom 50 (20%) pilots in thirty days then does 26 extensions of 2 week each. In this scenario, they have effectively reduced their furlough notification from 30 days to 14 days for a year. The same as ATSG/ATI. In other words, they just stole a free contract concession without even having to fight over it.

So, maybe they don't do 14 day extensions for 26 weeks. What if it's 25 weeks, or 24 weeks, or 23 weeks, or... You get the point. Where do we draw the line? The more times management gets away with this free contract concession, the more difficult it will be to stop this in the future. They are setting a precedent.

APA1224/ABX needs to put a stop to this furlough extension and insist that if the company wants to change the effective date, they have to cancel the current furlough and announce a new furlough with a 30 notice. Extension for furlough effective date is not covered by the contract so, it might be necessary to take it to arbitration. This should be dealt with immediately before the company is allowed to establish more of a pattern of behavior that is tolerated by the union.

Opponents might argue that this could force management to follow through with the furlough. That is a possibility, but, if management will furlough on December 31, they are going to furlough anyway. Also, if things change in those two weeks between Dec 31 and Jan 14, the company can just issue a recall. It is a relatively small risk to uphold the integrity of the CBA.