Originally Posted by
Poppy
1. Just because I, and the much of rest of the CAL pilot group, chose to maximize W2 does not make us unsafe. I do admit that giving up the rest seat was a stupid idea. On the other hand, I guarantee that I could cherry pick the old U contract, and find stupid stuff. As yet, no one has told me how to make a deposit at the bank with work rules!
2. You assume that ALL work rules are safety related, and that is just not true.
3. We can all find an anecdotal example(s) of why one thing or another is great or sucks. Sorry your friend got cancer, but only a broad examination of the evidence would even provide a clue.
Further, I didn't try to state that U was wrong in their approach, only that it was different from Cal. And therein lies the point, I was simply trying illustrate what I perceive as a vast cultural difference, and you chose to bash the CAL side, and wrap the U side in the flag of safety.
Everyone has to get over the "my team/heritage/lineage/uniform/training/younameit is better than yours" schoolyard taunts because we are all on the same team now.
No dog in this fight, at least not directly, only trying to get all airline pilots to rally around what is best for the profession and end the stupid and childish tribal mentality that has been used by management to diminish our profession to something less than bus driver status, my apologies to bus drivers. U has done much over the years to diminish the profession starting with "Blue Skies" in the early 80's up to giving major concessions that have reduced U to a massive RJ consortium. If you read the history of our profession you will see how after deregulation management has whipsawed one pilot group against another until today's young pilots think that a senior captain earning 250k by selling his soul to the company is doing great when in actuality that captain is not even earning what narrow body captain working 75 hours per month earned in 1978. The continuing consolidation of the industry leaving only three large legacy carriers should make it much easier for the profession to come together yet we see the food fight developing at UniCal and will most likely see the ongoing fight at USA become even worse when the wimpy APA folks join the fray. Without a real union, ALPA is an "association" as are all the other pilot labor groups, with a single contract for ALL commercial airline pilots, the profession is doomed to a level of mediocrity that will no longer attract the top caliber people who have gone before us. As for work rules not being primarily for safety you must think that the rules governing rest, minimum pay, hotel standards, etc. are there to do what, make our lives more glamorous? Please, wake up and look at the problems our profession has with issues such as fatigue and working on the "backside" of the clock. Name a work rule that cannot be connected to safety. Even min day or duty rigs are there to encourage the company to use us efficiently so we do not spend 16 hours per day on duty every day of our trips.