Originally Posted by
OKLATEX
First, welcome to the Company!
Secondly, no thanks!
Some will have heart burn over it, but google 'Decision 83 ALPA'. ALPA fought the battle along time ago and while it has its issues, it is the basis for ALPA contracts, and frankly, it may have warts, but I think it is still relevant.
They industry norm for the 75/76 is a blended rate. FedEx has already fought the payrate/pay banding issue with the DC-8 (perhaps the 747 was part of that too) after the Tigers merger. For good/bad, we have pay banding, WB and NB. Leave it alone. Back to the 75/76, the company wanted a blended rate. The 767 LOA wasn't a bad agreement, but thanks to MANAGEMENT issues regarding staffing, a delay in starting to hire, and of course the sims, we are in this mess. The Passover deal is another problem, but bottom line, the Company has created this mess. They can fix their mess!
Further, with a single payrate, you would need an excess/flush bid to realign the seniority list. Way too much training costs. Nobody wants that type of bid!
Lastly, having a junior airplane, NB works well for seniority. Was the 727 in the past and before this latest fiasco with the 75/76 bid back, it worked well with the 757. Given the amount of night flying, if a guy wants gain seniority, it is nice to for a guy to have a place to go as a line pilot. Some guys go into management, some go to the Union, some go to the school house, some move to a Domicile to ease juniority. But, for the rest, nice to have a fleet where they can get some seniority fairly quickly and be line guys. Given that the economy will crap out and the music will stop again, I think it is import for guys to have a place to go should they desire seniority.
There is a lot of variety at FDX. Want International flying, bid the 777 and MD. Want International Flying and lifestyle, bid the 76 in Hong Kong or 75 in Cologne. Want WB Domestic, bid the MD, A300 or 767. Want Domestic with quick seniority, in the past, you could bid the 757. Hopefully those days will come back to the 757.
It is not always about Money. QOL has a value, and QOL can be found fairly quickly on a junior fleet. For many, that QOL gain is well worth the money!
I just realized I used 'guy' a lot. I include the 'girls' too in this discussion!
"The industry norm for the 75/76 is a blended rate." Do you mean a single pay rate? UPS, ATI and now DAL, AA, and UAL* all have single pay rates for the 757/767. UAL has a $8-10 difference for the smaller -200.
FDX now pays our 757 Captains
roughly $30-40 LESS per flying hour than all of those airlines. But yes, please keep talking about how its nice to have a junior airplane so a very few number of people can get QOL seniority over money.
Potential new hires coming to this company need to know this. Should you get stuck there for a couple of years, like many already have and often do, this could be a deal breaker when choosing FDX.
From my perspective we pay our 757 pilots much less than industry standard so some junior folks can hold some layovers in their home of record, or so a few 757 pilots can enjoy artificial seniority. I had some seniority on the 757, it still sucked. haha Since a small number of pilots stay on the 757, those pilots would most likely still be there should we get a single pay rate.
I think the 757/767 LOA is a disaster. The feds threw a wrench into the system with the segment currency requirement and now the system is SNAFUd as we try to work around abysmal 757 and 767 simulator procurement issues.
To get back on thread topic, bid rumors, last month our Negotiating Committee Chairman briefed with respect to the new Section 24 Vacancy System that "
the company had done all the programming behind the scenes and it was tested years ago early during its development" Negotiating Committee Update June 4, 2017 YouTube video 2minutes15seconds.
https://youtu.be/S3RrtFBMdSI?t=2m15s
Really? Years ago? Why are we still waiting for training material or more detailed explanations on how this is going to work?
We should have voted no! This contract should have never been given to the members. October 2021 is a long ways off.