Originally Posted by
sailingfun
There are a couple of points that need to be clarified here. DALPA was not caught off guard by 117. They approached the company last March to begin discussions on FAR 117. The company stated at that time that we would want to much for any changes and they planned to operate under the current contract. The company felt that previous LOA's had not been cost effective for the company. Several provisions that tied into furloughs cost the company a enormous amount of money after the 09 economic downturn and the LOA that modified recovery flying has turned out to be far more expensive then they thought. I know the forum has a different opinion of the cost benefits of various LOA's. but the company and DALPA usually agree on costing data. I am not sure where the forum gets its costing data.
The company at the time appears to have been expecting a favorable outcome on the actual interpretation of some aspects of FAR117. ALPA was able to prevail in DC on most of those interpretations. The final clarification was not what ATA was seeking. Once the rule was clarified the company came back to DALPA and requested negotiations on FAR117 after snubbing us the first time. Those negotiation are now ongoing however personally I believe we should withdraw from those discussions until SD retracts his letter from 6 Dec.
Sailing,
This seems to be a tough nut to crack. The only possible
partial solution might be to return to two windows when Long call pilots check their schedules. Say pilots check their schedules at 8 am and 8 pm. If the company has flying scheduled then they acknowledge it and all is good.
If no flying is assigned at this time then the pilot would not have to acknowledge any trips until the next window. This way pilots would not be on a constant 2 hour tether and not have to acknowledge in the middle of the night. The company would be able to assign most, but not all, trips this way and perhaps rely more heavily on green-slips.
Or perhaps have more windows for checking schedules - say 4 one hour windows. Pilots could bid for what two windows they would be responsible for. Like I say it is a partial solution.
If we do go down this or a similar path we had better be getting something substantial in return.
Scoop