There's allot more to it then "it's protected by Federal Law."

1. The airlines go out and specifically recruit military types. They hunt for and preferentially hire military folks. So, if this is your game plan, then the airline should understand federal law and insure its done right.

2. The union is in the same boat. There are contractual provisions within the cba that specifically have tentacles into the application and use of military leave: scheduling, employment status, and pay/benefits. The military pilots are ALPA members too, therefore the association should stand ready and willing to address their issues.


Probably over a 22 year career in the military have I seldom drilled on anything but the first and third weekends of the month. Exceptions occur the more rank I got and the more responsibility I took on. That is a shared experience by all military officers (guard/reserve/AD). I have had occasions where we were doing 24/7 ops and that was not only an inconvenience by my employer, but to my family. The deployments, etc. took a major toll. Was there short notice MLLV? Yes. Was it a regular thing? No.

What started the angry and acrimonious relationship between the union, management, and the military pilots was the institution of PBS. How, and when a pilot inserts military leave is a big deal to PBS. When you have the union carrying the company's water as it relates to PBS and the military, that is when I stop listening to the union. My association needs to represent the dues paying member (individually) not some stupid PBS program that they bought into hook line and sinker.

On the pay and benefits side. It's simple. Just follow the law. It was evidently not hard for the DAL and UAL MEC to do, so why was it so hard for L CAL and the CAL MEC? This is where those "relationships" come in, this is why CAL got sued. The individuals on the management side that were named in the suit all disappeared within 8 weeks of the suit being filed. Coincidence? I think not. The union should have done a better job holding management accountable. The military folks should have never been forced to sue to protect themselves.

Use of mil leave is "protected." But, really squadrons don't have the spare money laying around to cut orders that they don't need as a matter of either military necessity, or training/proficiency. And, I for one didn't have the free time to just go to the squadron and hang out in my spare time. For the most part, ANG duty was either a push or a pay cut for me. We all do it to serve our country. And, in particular, our country can't afford to stand up a full time military so the real work load is on the guard/reserve now.