Originally Posted by
airflight999
I'm not sure about that part in the contract, but in the most recent conference call with the MEC, the reps said it doesn't matter whether or not we have the 200 in regards to captain pay.
Supposedly the language in the contract says that captains get a "base pay" (which is what a captain would be paid flying the 200), for training events, deadheads, reserve, etc. It doesn't specifically mention anything about having a 200 on property means that captains will get paid that amount. So even though 407 is out to pasture, captains will still be getting paid the crap "base pay" if they're doing anything but flying the 76/79 seaters.
Exactly. A "common sense" interpretation of our contract, conducted by an average human being on planet Earth, would very likely presume that a pilot based in Houston--who is only qualified to fly a 76-seater--would be paid guarantee, vacation, sick time, etc. on 76-seat payrates. Because, well, we only fly 76-seaters and are not qualified to fly anything else currently on property but 76-seat Embraers.
However, lawyers and arbitrators do not read contracts from the perspective of ordinary humans like us, and while something such as this seems readily obvious to an average Joe, they've decided that "base pay" means "the lowest paying jet equipment category that has ever been operated by Mesa since the CBA was signed."
Because it is not explicitly stated to the contrary, the arbitrator determined that equipment-specific payrates are only effective in an operational sense--i.e. those are the rates you get when actually flying that specific aircraft.
Language (or lack thereof) can be twisted to mean many things no one ever considered. Our current contract is one of the most bare-bones documents I have ever seen, because, well, it was signed with the "bankruptcy gun" to everyone's head.
I hope I don't tick off any CRJ Captains by saying this, but any junior IAH Captain who likes the EJet (and/or lives in IAH) should feel lucky that arbitrator decision went the way it did--if base pay were variant-specific, the CRJ Captains would've had a very, very strong argument to bid over to EJet CA. Lots of us would be nowhere close to IAH Captain at the moment if it had gone the other way, IMHO.