Originally Posted by
Doug Masters
Latest from council 44 hotline:
Item 4. MD-88 Staffing (repeat item): Some pilots holding a bid or displacement to the MD88 will be converted on December 1st or January 1st prior to their expected conversion dates and prior to training. These conversions are to maintain the minimum PBS Staffing formula required by your contract. Our Scheduling Committee monitors these requirements continually. Your MEC is committed to enforcing your contract.
The way I read this is that the company will convert guys prior to training to meet the staffing formula. So if we are short in a category the company just types up a new conversion list and its magically in compliance? What am I missing?
These guys are converted BEFORE training. That means they will get a pay raise in most instances, and get the ALV for sitting around watching TV.
Contrary to the drivel you often read here, DALPA often does hold the company's feet to the fire, and ensuring compliance with the contract is a nonstop job. The contract requires minimum staffing. Most categories usually exceed that comfortably, but in some cases, such as this one, the staffing would not be in compliance without such exceptional moves.
I can promise you the company is not happy about giving guys a pay raise and being unable to fly them, but they dug this hole and DALPA wasn't about to lift them out of it.
(To be fair, any union, including DPA would do the same, but I wanted to highlight that DALPA doesn't always sit around trying to solve the company's problems of their own doing--on the contrary, we ensure that the contract is followed even when the company would love to not do so).