From Scoop above:

"First I will defend DALPA and say that we tired that once and were taken to court - we lost. We can not unilaterally change the status-quo or something like that. The company went after 39, or was it 49 pilots personally via the court system."


Scoop, it was indeed 49, who were the entire MEC (about 32 members at the time) plus an additional 17 of us line pilots, who had voiced our displeasure with those flying overtime while we were 18 months into C2K contract negotiations. It was our VP of Flt. Ops. Dave Bushy who targeted the line pilots specifically, based on stuff put on the DALPA boards, emails directly to Bushy and notes left in mailboxes of those who were flying max GS.

The math is pretty simple; if you have 10,000 pilots who fly on average 87-92 hours a month, with the ability to fly to FAR max, that is the same amount of flying time covered as 12,000 pilots all flying a 75 average. So yeah, PBS and no caps have cost at least 2,000 jobs. (10,000 x 90 = 12,000 x 75)

We have given up about 20% of our staffing, by going to PBS with no caps. Remember the battle cry of years past; "More Money, More Time Off"?


The only way you get both, is to fly LESS, not fly more. If we went to a hard cap or 75 tomorrow, the company would have to increase every category (starting with the 747 and 777) by 20%. In a math perfect world, the top 20% of every category below the 747/777 would upgrade to a higher paying seat, and get more days off, and the company would have to hire 2,000 more pilots.

But somehow that battle cry has become twisted to;

More Money! I want to fly 100+ a month!

And THAT is why we are not hiring.

FTB figured it out; bid reserve and use rolling thunder. If I wasn't a commuter, I'd be doing it too!