It makes perfectly good sense in a contract that values and protects seniority. It is all right there in plain language near the end of our section 24.

Our contract has strong language protecting seniority. FO's can get placed anywhere. Not so for Captains. Our contract has very specific language releasing seat locks as necessary to PREVENT the hiring of street captains.

This is not an issue for Saab Captains as that is the junior most Captain seat.

Every single eligible pilot (ATP mins..) who wishes to be a jet captain must be awarded those captain seats before a street captain may be placed there.

If necessary, a pilot may be bypassed if he/she is needed in their current seat. A basic summary of bypass: pilots may be bypassed for 120 days and then must be put in training for the seat for which they were bypassed. After 8 weeks, the bypassed pilot must be payed at the rate of the seat for which they were bypassed.

Street jet captains would be exceptionally expensive for the company. I don't think too many Saab Captains would be upset flying those high-credit decent time off Saab lines for Jet Captain pay!

This is NOT the type of issue our union would be willing to cut any slack on.