Originally Posted by EVpilot

Dang were still arguing the PBS v PBS v. No PBS.

I am CRJ. I voted against our current PBS when it was put to the group for ratification. I did so because of how much I thought it would suck for reserves. I was a fairly senior FO at the time but I wanted to upgrade and there were areas I didn't like in the reserve rules. I'm a reserve captain now and have been for quite some time now and I still don't like some of what we have to put up with as reserves. I have made my feelings know to my representation but they don't really seem to care so long as line holders arent affected.

Well that's not 100% fair as they have made some small improvements. They just don't seem interested in spending any negotiating capital to improve the lives of the 25 to 30 percent of pilots who suffer on reserve. I have only experienced our PBS as a senior bidder and a junior bidder. For a senior bidde it is great by the way. Never needed to tweak anything. I would bid what I want and I got what I bid.

But I digress. I do that sometimes. Sucks on reserve but reserve sucks no matter how you bid.

When we were put into this merger situation, by no fault of any of us flying the line, we had PBS ands the ERJ had line bidding. The line bidding looks great. I'd take it over what we have in a hot second. If we could adopt the ERJ system in its entirety with all of its work rules and even with its flaws, id vote yes in a second. It is way more lucrative and pilot friendly best I can tell.

We aren't going to get to do that. The company won't go for it. I don't think there is any thing we can do to get that into a JCBA, not that a JCBA will ever happen. Even if we do get one, I believe PBS is inevitable. It has become the industry standard.

This brings me to my question. And before I go to far, I'm not trying to argue erj v crj here. Not my pbs is better than yours. But it strikes me as odd the the ERJ group was no pbs when we started. Then as time goes on the ERJ side decided to go with PBS but only the pref bid system. Those of you on the ERJ side have the most experience with the bad things about PBS via the CAL PBS system. I'm told that the pref bid system is similar in all the ways the CAL system was bad.

So my question, finally, is why do you guys want this pref bid system so badly? Why are you so dead set against flight line? I'm being serious here and willing to be educated on the prefbid system. If it looks better, you will have a convert.

Or is the push for prefbid a tactic to make sure neither side will ever vote yes. A poison pill if you will. I'm not saying this is the case and for the love of god we need to get on the same page and work together. I am not a divider/ rabble rouser. Just asking the question and am seriously interested in what the ERJ guys think of pref bid.

Sorry about the return to PBS but it seems a valid point of discussion seeing as we are stuck on it yet again.