Originally Posted by
Ben Salley
Of course not. The SLI train has already left the station, and in my opinion, both kids have said "******" in front of Mom; Dad's on his way home. And we collectively will have to deal with Daddy Eischen's decision.
What I will say is that I currently sit at 58%. The CAL proposal places me at 51%, the UAL at 81%; I know the numbers don't coincide with the briefs, but folks can make numbers do what they want. I don't want 51% or 81%, I want to be where I am right now come September. That seems to be the consensus of the IAH Pilots. I also believe that I should't Captain a wide-body before I could have independently hold it, as a result of this merger; therefore UAL wide-body fences make sense to me.
The arbitrators made about 6 grand/day/each while we spent a month arguing about which airline sucked the worst; acknowledging that we BOTH sucked.
I won't be making any statement to disparage either merger committee or their proposals. I understand that the two groups need to fight for their respective Pilots.
Growing up in Newark, I fully understand the need to fight for your turf or beliefs; I did that every week until I enlisted in the Navy at 17. What I don't think most guys understand is that it's ok to deliver a bloody nose to one of your buddies on the block to make sure you defend your own. It is not ok to bloody his nose, kick him in the crotch then spit on him. At some point, you're gonna need your block-buddy on your side; at some point the CAL and UAL Pilots are gonna need the same.
Fight Hard. Fight Fair. And we'll be stronger for the next fight, that will certainly arise.
I hope that's moderate enough.
-Ben
Numbers don't lie when used correctly. Not that this matters, but just to "edumicate" everyone that wants to use this argument in the future.
Imagine 2 companies. Company A has 200 "acitve" pilots and 100 furloughed pilots and company B has 100 active pilots. Now imagine these companies are identical in every other way same planes, same career expectations, same longevity. Now imagine Ben Salley is number 50 at Company B so he is 50th percentile.
If you merge these two companies as CAL recommended (i.e. 1:1) then Ben ends up number 100 on the new list and next assume you don't count furloughed pilots then his new percentile is 100/300 or 33% versus his percentile at company B which was 50%.
If you merge these two companies based on a straight 2:1 ratio for active pilots then Ben Salley is number 150 or 50th percentile, the exact percentile he was at company B.
Now imagine that you mix the 100 furloughed pilots from company A in with the bottom 50 pilots at company A and the bottom 25 pilots at company B using a ratio of 150:25 A:B only for the last 25 numbers at company B. In this scenario Ben Salley still gets number 150 on the seniority list but his percentile changes to 150/400 or 37.5%
If you are not in the bottom part of the list where the furloughed pilots are being mixed you have not been impacted, but your percentile has changed dramatically.