From the 79 snipet:
<Are there $9k apartments in MEM or LAX? Yes…just as expensive apartments exist in HKG. However, there are lots of apartments ranging from $2500-$4000 in great areas with expats and they are clean(emphasis added...couldn't help myself). The Negotiating Committee did not think a pilot going to HKG should have all their housing expenses paid. Just like the company doesn’t pay housing in MEM, ANC or LAX. The company figured the average mortgage+utilities for a pilot is around $3000. ALPA used $2000 a pilot for an estimate of out of pocket, so housing allowance (FDX) $2700 + (pilot) $2000 = $4700 month (apartment in HKG or CDG). If you don’t want to pay some out of pocket, don’t consider the base.>
First, yes, there are $9K apartments in LAX, perhaps MEM, but those are on the upper end. Guess what, Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world for housing. The average ex-pat pays over $8,000USD per month! LAX wasn't mentioned in the top 20, but CDG was. I believe it made the top ten chart. $2500-$4000 for great areas with expats, and they are clean. At least he didn't say nice as company officials stated in a briefing to the "subic demagogues" a couple months back. Actually, they claimed $3500. It's obviously changed since then. I like the trend though.
The company figured the average mortgage(I prefer to use the word rent, or since HKG, perhaps let would be in order) + utilities for a pilot is around $3,000. Personally, I don't care what the company "figured." I want to know what figure the NC came up with in their cost analysis. Surely there was some sort of analysis done on Hong Kong housing/living expenses. I would think that would be a minimum prerequisite for any negotiating of an FDA. And, that would include more than just a cursory look at Hong Kong Living Magazine.
<One of the biggest aspects of this LOA is enhanced Scope protection.>
Again, show me the beef.
<When SFS was opened, FDX said not to be covered by RLA. ALPA put out a notice not to bid SFS. That bid filled up in days - plenty of folks bid it anyway. And there were no financial incentives to bid the base.>
I did not bid SFS until fairly recently, but no financial incentives? I beg to differ. When the base initially opened I believe there was some sort of "bonus" money. I thought it was upwards of $10,000-$15,000, but I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that three years ago I bid it for the financial incentives. I got 79 CH's pay to come out and I'll get 79 CH's when I go back. In December of next year, that equates to over $18,000! I have also been able to utilize my foreign earned income exclusion, which this year will enable me to keep almost $22,000 of my income. Income normally paid for federal taxes, if I lived in the states. That same $22,000 per year disappears with the LOA and its tax equalization. A formula/plan which I remind all, is NOT mandatory!
Hey, the company could provide the $2700 housing and pay foreign taxes. Let us keep the foreign earned income exclusion and the writeoff for foreign taxes. Our U.S. tax liability will be zero and the extra $50,000 + the pilot would keep from his/her gross income would be enough for a nice and clean apartment. Plus, there might be enough to supplant the tuition costs for schooling.
Speaking of schooling:
<FDX was never going to pay schooling. We’re pilots, not executives, we’re also not E1. When they send an executive over, they get to pick who they send. They can look and choose a person without kids.>
They also send executives with children as evidenced by the executive in Singapore who had a stepson. You know the one that got caught vandalizing and was subsequently caned.
Admittedly, the schooling issue is a cost that's largely unknown until the bid is posted. In Subic there are about 25 school age children. The solution is to simply put some sort of cap. But the company simply will never pay schooling. They told the NC personally. I'm not sure what the NC's response or counter was.
<There are options for enrolling your kids into American or British school in HKG…There’s also Xuhai, Shenzhen, and Macau, and you can get your kids into school there.
Bob told a story about kids being signed up for good private schools when born, so still hard to get into the best private schools in the US. Some people had to move from NY to CT because they couldn’t get their kids into school in NY. This is a problem happening everywhere, not just HKG.>
What? I would like to throw out one word here...choice. So some kids couldn't get into the "best private schools." Could they get into others? Were there public schools available? Many families actually move to certain neighborhoods because of the schools in that district. The difference between that and HKG is their is relatively no choice in HKG. Kids don't speak Cantonese...looks like private school then, huh?
As for schools in Xuhai(Zhuhai?) and Shenzhen, those are in mainland China! Shenzhen is almost an hour and a half drive away. Zhuhai, on the other hand is only about a 30 minute drive...after you take the 50 minute ferry ride to Macau. Oh, so Macau is only a 50 minute ferry ride. Yes, that's all, and perhaps a 5-10 minute taxi to school, each way. Did Bob really say this?
I have voted. For those of you still gathering data/facts, I encourage you to listen to our MEC and our NC well, but not blindly. When something is described as set in stone, required, or mandatory, I encourage you to ask, by whom.
This LOA is woefully inadequate, ill-prepared, and hastily pushed forward. They can tweak it all they want. As I said before, You can squirt all the sprays of perfume you want, the floating turd will always stink until its flushed.