Originally Posted by
GunshipGuy
The impression one is left with is they are cowed. I hope this is not the case, and we see some backbone.
Remember how our union accepted the mandate from the company stating Delta pilots would make PAs from the gate house to inform passengers as to the status of the flight? e.g. You're in the crew lounge and you're aware the plane is going to be an hour late, but you're supposed to go give PAs after coordinating with the GA? Not to get into that discussion again about how you'd do it anyway; the point is it was put out by the company without coordinating with our union and we took it.
Well, what kind of signal did the company get from our accepting that mandate to perform work outside the PWA?
I'm in watch and wait mode for this one. This is not the gentleman's airline I'm used to. I'm very interested to see this direct shot at violating work rules in the contract. I've seen it in the regional world, but not at this level. It made me twitch with the logic flags that the 2 hour response time raises. What if you're commuting on a transcon on another airline (no free DLnet)? Your cell phone died while driving and you don't have a charger? The list goes on. It's just not plausible. It cannot function as proposed as there are too many viable outs.
This does wreak of negotiating in public. It's far worse than the lie of "we could hire fall of 2012 if you pass C2012."
I'm very interested to see the ALPA response to this. We've had a number of times where the company dove into the gray areas of the contract and they caved... but never a direct attempt to violate the black and white in the contract.