Originally Posted by
FirstClass
My guess is the the next thing the company will have to look at is commuting. When you are competing for pilots, its not realistic to think that they all won't have a problem living in Dayton or Knoxville. When you are competing, that means you are casting your net to the widest group possible, and that means commuting pilots.
Two leg commutes are difficult to compete with, its an all day affair. Small towns with no realistic living accommodations don't work either.
There is a rope around this companies neck in this regard, its not even clear if they see it or not.
Most of my predictions come true and in this case here is what I see in the future. For pilots commuting to Charlotte, single occupancy hotels provided in Charlotte like other contract airlines, and then company provided deadhead from Charlotte to Dayton, Knoxville, and Cincinatti.
I'm sure union people watch this website, my advice to you would be to look very carefully at improving deadhead language in your ongoing discussions as a priority.
So you would have your union advocate for costly improvements that only favor one portion of the pilot group? How much negotiating capital should they expend on that at the cost of other items? Like it or not, commuting is a choice, just as moving to base is a choice. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the company's choice of bases makes it harder for them to recruit, but trying to get the company to agree to a bunch of costly gains at the expense of other pilots on the list is a non-starter.
Next item, the 200s. They're gone.
Whether or not PSA was the premier carrier everyone wanted to go to or not, there is no future for the 200s now (at any airline). Heck, they'll need 900's on 200 routes just to dead head crews around the system. A turning point has been reach, the seniority list has held steady for a solid year now with new hires replacing the attrition. That can no longer be sustained.
Again, if the union is listening which I'm sure they are, its now also time to look at the blended rates language and start moving towards a payscale that favors larger airplanes more strongly.
You do realize that as 200s go away our pay rates automatically go up, right? It's not a lot, but that's how the blended rate already works.
My advice to the union would be this- stop chasing all the grievances, they have you chasing your tails around. Look forward on these issues noted above. Tell the pilot group officially that fly it and grieve it is no longer the recommended path, the union will support you when saying no to clear violations of the contract.
And once again you choose to display your vast and comprehensive knowledge of labor law. Thanks for that.
Union people- enough of the bullsh|t already. Who holds all the cards here...
You're absolutely right, we have a lot of things working in our favor right now, too many to run off half cocked and do stupid things like violating Federal labor law or having blanket parties in the parking lot.