Originally Posted by
SEDPA
Agree! They should have been placed in ratio starting with the first active UAL pilot, had the arbitration looked anything like the past precedents and awards of the last 30 years, prior to the merger policy change ... what was so terribly "just wrong" was ALPA changing the merger policy so as to hugely advantaged one group over another in reference to past integrations ... it let the arbs rape the CAL side to appease the UAL side (again, the reference being all integrations of the past 30 years pre-merger policy change) ... so as to avoid another "US Airways" defection ... disgusting, as is those who hide behind the policy change claiming "fairness".
That's not it at all. L-CAL wanted ONLY a status and category merger. Not only this, but they "recalculated" the number of United Captains to make it the same, then "recalculated" how many FO's United should really have had based on LCAL guppy staffing. Hence UAL was "overstaffed" by 1,400 pilots.
No one bought that.
The arbitrators went 65% with status and category using actual positions on the roster as of the merger in 2010. Only 35% went to longevity, so it was essentially a status and category merger (2/3) and only longevity (1/3) which is why UAL 1999 hires are junior to CAL 2007 hires. Yes, UAL did benefit from bringing larger equipment overall, and the argument that the 747s would be immediately parked no one bought either. They are here until at least 2022 as of last announcement.
I keep hearing the word "active" pilot. Well it was a "seniority list" integration, not an "active pilot" integration. Its clearly obvious that one side wanted to 100% use only status and category (i.e. Status = Pilot, Category = Captain,FO) completely ignoring types of airplanes and longevity.
You can bet that UAL pilots did not stand up and say "Lets make merger policy longevity" because USAir was an airline that we were potentially going to merge with as well. It was Brucia, a CAL pilot with decent longevity that wanted to add that.
It seems like guys are still stomping their feet demanding that someone listen to them that all the furloughees should have been stapled (except the CAL furloughees) and a guppy Captain is just like a 747 Captain because they both have 4 stripes. Well if CAL had merged with Alaska you can bet you wouldn't have proposed 1 for 1 and that you would have demanded that the 777s, 767s, 787's on order, and 757's be treated as a higher status and category. I'd bet money on that.
The CAL proposal was tailored the way it was because UAL had larger aircraft, and pilots with more longevity.
The UAL proposal was far from perfect, but it would work well in many mergers, and the arbitrators (who are not ALPA arbitrators, they are just arbitrators) recognized this and agreed.
It's too bad guys can't get over this, and just look at the math and read the award. Certainly depending on where you are on the list and your age you were affected more than other pilots.
Every CAL guy I've met has been super great. Probably better attitudes than many LUAL pilots because we were crapped on by management for so many years. Yes, they complain about the SLI, but they don't understand why it came down the way it did, they just hang on to talking points that weren't true, nor the failed attempt to put a far out proposal hoping there would be a "meet in the middle" by the arbitrators.
I know guys are going to say for years they got screwed because their relative percentage dropped, etc. Well then they should change the merger policy to "relative percentage" (two words which do not appear in policy) and then hope we don't merger with a much younger pilot group, or an all guppy airline.
So I'm sorry we don't agree on this, but the list is not going to change and the only thing I can hope for is that people can have a better understanding as to why the arbitrators decided what they did and leave the conspiracy theories out of this because its not really productive.