Originally Posted by
SilentLurker
That can be negotiated and amended. Doubt ALPA would give company “unilateral control of pairings.” Can anyone name one regional airline where that is happening.
People are nervous about a bogeyman that does not exist when it comes to PBS. There is a win-win situation out there that works great for both parties, that middle ground has to be found. Hardliners hold up progress. Sometimes Management understands not to walk into a gunfight with pitch forks, so they wait it out until the day that Amazon order of AR’s are delivered at the door step. Then they approach ALPA with pitch forks, having the AR’s strapped to their backs. Oh it’s a pilots market alright, until the gun fight begins at the negotiation table.
Sometimes working together for the best outcome for both pilots and company is not a bad idea. Screaming screw the company and PBS, give them nothing is not a viable negotiation strategy, in any “market”.
It is not just about screwing the company or whatever. PBS is a pay cut. Right now the company pays for transition conflicts. Losing PBS means losing those conflicts. That is lost pay. Also we would lose DTS. As somebody who always DTS's my vacation, this is a huge give away. Why would we give a single thing away right now?
When we almost got PBS a few years ago (after bankruptcy), the company did have the complete last say over pairings. ALPA could suggest changes but if they didn't meet the company's parameters, ALPA's suggestions were scrapped. I remember a scheduling rep told me one month the ALPA pairings had greatly improved commutability and cadence but they were scrapped because the base-wide number of crew overnights/hotels the company had to pay for went up by two for the month.
PBS is lost pay for pilots, it is a gain of control for the company, and it requires that we trust our untrustworthy management. I'm not saying PBS could never be beneficial, but there is absolutely no way any pilot should be considering giving the company anything in exchange for improvements. Every single change to our contract right now should be an improvement, with absolutely nothing given in exchange. We gave for years, it is their turn to give now.