Originally Posted by
Dave Fitzgerald
Well said. But as I said earlier, it seems, and I hope, that the relationship is getting better with Oscar and the new managers since last year.
You would think that with an industry that relies so heavily on ex military/guard/reserve, that this would be a no brainer.
I think you are right.
It really depends on the culture that the leader wants to implement. Oscar seems to want to make love and not war. If pilots get treated right, I don't think they'll drop too many last minute mil leave requests.
PBS, and its "rule set" runs our lives as pilots. If the tittie-twisters who run PBS back off the torque then mil guys will play nice. If they keep turning to the right, more guys will be walking around with their USSERA fact sheets, and copies of the CFR's. Oscar has probably figured this out.
All of our problems really started under Contract '02 and the resulting staffing model that cut reserve coverage by over 60%. You can't absorb operational problems without reserves, and you can't re-crew a trip that dropped for mil leave if you don't have reserves.