Seriously? NOT IN THE CBA--CAN'T UNILATERALLY RAISE PAYRATES WITHOUT AN LOA. WHERE ARE YOU ALPA?!?!?!?!?

If this is true, and ALPA doesn't cease & desist this immediately (or at least tell the pilot group about it/LOA it) we need to re-re-re-clean house, and I might even feel compelled to run for office this time around.

It is one thing to give out new hire bonuses/incentive payments, since new hires are on probation and in somewhat of a grey area when it comes to ALPA/the CBA--lots of airlines have gotten away with unilateral bonus programs/1st year FO payments, etc..

Once those guys are off probation, however, it is a very, very, very flagrant violation of every tenet of the RLA/collective bargaining process to pay specific FOs $500/month extra without an ALPA LOA. There is no grey area on that one--there is not a single arbitrator or judge in the entire country who would even hesitate on this one--it is 100% completely illegal to just randomly pay some 2nd year FOs extra money without an LOA or CBA ammendment authorized by ALPA.

If the program you've described above is real, every single 2nd year FO not receiving that money needs to grieve the heck out of this--if for nothing else just to get the money.