Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
The new hire freeze was not the only thing we gave up to get rid of the recovery flying. When they merged the 767 domestic into the ER category, a pilot wasn't considered done with training until all TOE's were done. Now a pilot can fly domestically while waiting to finish his/her TOE's. That kept pilots from sitting at home getting paid to do nothing. That was a bigger concession than the freeze, but well worth it to get rid of recovery obligations for OE.
You are correct, that was a large LOE with many moving parts. The 767 domestic carve out was bigger back then with extensive delays for TOE. That is less now. One thing no one has mentioned. There is no requirement in the contract to release the FO on a trip with a IOE. The contract only covers what happens if the LCA decides to release the FO. If the company were to decide to play hardball they could tell the LCA's to not release the FO's.
From what I have been told the companies biggest concern is a very small subset of pilots who are virtually not working at all with smart bidding and last minute swaps. The last minute swaps are causing pilot to pilot issues that spill into the CP's office.
The question becomes do we try and leverage some type of change that might benefit all pilots like restoring a paid authorized leave each year or stand by the current system and perhaps have the company stop releasing FO's for IOE's. I don't have the answer and I suspect the pilot group would be deeply divided.