Probation was not part of the Flight Crew handbook, that document which served as the "rule book" prior to a Collective Bargaining Agreement. Our first CBA, known as "The Agreement", was brought to us courtesy of the Fedex Pilots Association (FPA) and Frank Fato's infamous parking lot deal. It implemented probation at FedEx, so one might argue that probation is FPA's fault.

But . . .

I don't know if probation was a provision of the previous FPA TA (Jan '98) or of the ALPA TA (June '96), so I can't say for certain that FPA was "to blame."


Does it matter?



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