Originally Posted by
bigtime209
I understand that it's part of the contract. But an email explaining the facts would be nice. The only hint that the pilot group has gotten that the company is going to force FOs to CA if they have to is the 1 page of the vacancy bid that said to update your displacement preferences in case there are insufficient CA bidders. And this hasn't caught ALPA off guard. I talked to a couple of different guys in ALPA leadership a few weeks ago. They knew that this was coming on this vacancy.
I get the company can force a filling a vacancy. I like how this one is twice the size of previous ones just to force the upgrades. However I don't see how they can use the displacement process to run it. They have to select the most junior pilot to fill the vacancy. I guess if LGA and ORD vacancies didn't get filled then they could use the bids but I think we are entering uncharted territory. I see a four year arbitration fight on the horizon.
On the flip side I can see the pinch of flowing CAs and FOs not upgrading. Not upgrading FOs and expecting the company to expand flow isn't realistic.