Originally Posted by
baseball
I agree that I hope there is enough growth both organically and due to retirements to make everyone happy.
However, I disagree with your assertion regarding routes. It's a two way shift. Pre-merger UAL and CAL only had 9 routes that over-lapped. All 9 routes were retained and have been retained. The shift is two ways. While the 737 is contracting in some bases and on some routes, the airbus has jumped in and filled that void. I see a net gain in overall pilot positions in CAL bases. Not looking at metal at all, just looking at bodies. I honestly don't care what metal I fly, just as long as I have an airplane that suits the family's schedule.
The benefits of the merger will only be realized when all of the work groups get contracts. I find it absolutely insane that the FA contracts aren't done yet. Do you mean to tell me it's a bigger deal to pour a Coke-a-cola on one legacy carrier over another? It only takes about 2 weeks to train up a FA. We have harmonized thousands of pages of manuals and procedures and we can fly mixed crews but UAL/CAL FA's cannot? Crazy. They must have the pilots outnumbered 5 to 1, so there's some big money to save there if they decide to figure it out.
Well we can finally agree on something, and I think it's a good post in that perhaps we can stop arguing about the SLI which has nothing to do with the issue at hand anyway (C171 Resolution)... somehow Mitch jumped in to bring that up again for no apparent reason other than to stir the pot... It is ludicrous that the FA's don't have a joint CBA yet. I fear their infighting is worse than ours though, and the company is happy to sit back and let them argue each other out of any gains they might be able to procure. I'm extremely glad that we have closed that chapter and are now one contract and one list. I fully agree this ship flounders until the rest of the employee groups join us.