Originally Posted by
UGBSM
Ok, but don’t be obtuse. You know very well what is meant here. Unless you were hired yesterday we have all lived with the short call requirement to be “promptly available” and live in the “general area” for many decades now. It’s not new.
2 hours has not been written into the PWA because we have negotiated the leeway to be reasonable and use good judgement. Yet there is always going to be someone who is going to ruin it for all of us by stretching “promptly available” and “general area” to unreasonableness.
As in trying to be 2 hours flying time away on short call, or live 110 miles away from the airport. (2 hours times 55 mph driving I’m guessing).
It’s correct that two hours is not written in the contract. Over the last 30 years this item has come up numerous times and both the company and union have agreed that reasonably available is within two hours of the airport via surface transportation with normal traffic. You are not required to report within two hours as many things could delay your report like traffic or airport parking and buses.
This has been tested with pilots sitting shortcall in San Diego claiming they could drive to LAX in two hours and pilots living in Vegas claiming they could get there within two hours because of the flight options.
As other posters mentioned there are always a few that want to push things. In the end that causes unnecessary restrictions on all pilots where the group suffers for the actions of a few. The new sick leave policy is a excellent example.