Originally Posted by Qotsaautopilot

They are already feeling the labor pinch. Mins lowered to 2,000 total. When the training program gets bogged down with replacements for attrition instead of growth pilots they will really feel it. Then when these guys require 100 hrs of OE because they only have 500hrs of 121 it'll get worse. Let's face it the bus is easy once you know it but hard for someone with little 121 and little jet. If they wanted an extensive and expensive training program to train button pushers like most Airbus operators in
the third world it could work but they don't want that. This training program is designed for those with a good amount of 121 experience.

That's why this grievance the instructors have is a huge huge deal. If they have to expand the program for larger classes to maintain growth and keep up with the massive attrition it requires more instructors. Hiring more instructors requires taking more guys off the line making staffing worse unless they can use these non seniority ground instructors all the way through CSIs. That helps them immensely and frees up the instructors to do more sim training because of the growth and now attrition.

Why do you think the instructors are actually being threatened to drop the grievance. Using those ground instructors is a cornerstone in the plan to keep us growing but also not give us a contract because they can keep up with attrition.

You did notice they put out an invite in November for line pilots to apply for flight instructor positions yet no one has been hired. That's because someone realized taking more guys offline would be more expensive and more importantly hurt staffing. So they came up with the idea to hire more ground instructors and use them all the way through CSIs instead of more flight instructors.

JS put in every solicitation email that even though he's begging for you to pick up a trip we don't have a staffing problem. You know what that means? He knows we have a staffing problem.