Originally Posted by
shiznit
Agreed... Do the people who chatter about this realize that ALPA fought to have that provision restored just recently (July 2011)!
Scheduling Alert 11-05 explained the improvements ALPA negotiated in LOA #29. Section 23.G.5 - First Officer Removal for OE is the very first item shown. It was a piece of contract restoration that pilots had been asking for, and it was accomplished. DALPA already used leverage in the last 5 years to get it back, I would be really surprised to see it negotiated away (and would vote accordingly).
The high paid FO's aren't a a surprise to anyone in management. Just because some FO's are making a killing on it doesn't mean anything... The highest paid pilot at DAL (and any other airline) has almost always been a WB FO.
That is probably why the rumor doesn't mention recovery flying, it refers to pulling trips for IOE. That is actually more insidious to the whole group then the latter.
The recovery that was done away with in 2011 was particularly onerous in that you went out on reserve first and the assigned trip was of course almost always much more painful than the one you had taken.