This "overtime at straight pay" train has left the station a long, long time ago. Unfortunately, it's just one in a huge list of manpower negative aspects of our contract and really, our culture here at FedEx.

Airline unions with long established histories negotiating contracts starting long before Fred Smith was even born understood and embraced contractual restrictions that required more pilots. It's kind of "Union 101" and those contract items became part of the boilerplate of their future contracts through present day.

• A contract like that caps everyone's flying regardless of seniority at a specific max monthly credit hour limit.
• You get carryover? You decide what you want to keep up to the limit but that's it.
• Reserves are on reserve. They can't drop trips and pick-up open time.
• If you get bumped from a trip, you can't work over the footprint of said trip.
• If you have vacation, you can't voluntarily decide to shrink or eliminate the footprint so you can work during that time.
• Selling back vacation is done as a result of factors beyond the pilot's control, not as a habitual practice.

Those are just a few examples. Look at the sick buy back program our MEC endorsed and 57% of us voted for. Someone who wants to max that out needs to work a very robust schedule and can't take sick leave for their last 2-years. For that, they get 50 cents on the dollar for their sick leave and the company gets another manpower negative measure codified in our CBA.

No one was jumping up and down demanding an end to carryover or unlimited credit hours during our last round of negotiations. In fact, I'm pretty sure there would be a significant amount of whining if we tried to change any of the above for the better. We (FedEx ALPA and our pilot group) are our second worse enemy.

So, complaining about a pilot doing the work of 1.5 to 2 pilots is pointless. The measures that allow someone to do that are in our contract and I seriously doubt anyone who wants it gone would be willing to pay the price required to do that. If we did try, there would be enough of our own on the other side of the rope pulling with the company that it would simply be a lesson in frustration.

Finally, this continued reference to doing something different during contract negotiations is a farce. For one thing, it doesn't happen. Enough of our own are sucking at the carryover teat every month that expecting them to suddenly stop is like expecting a crack addict to walk away from the pipe voluntarily. A portion of the one's who might get on board say stuff like "As soon as ALPA tells me to stop C/O or draft, I will". Well - dumbass - they can't. That's illegal. You just have to do it as your own personal choice, even if the contract says it's legal. So, it doesn't happen. Secondly, the teeth of the Railway Labor Act have been filed down to nubs over the last 20 years. Deviations from the status quo have consistently been held up as illegal job actions in court. Even if we got everyone to use the leverage we have - protect min days (no C/O), fly the scheduled DHs, turn down draft, etc., we'd end up losing in the end when we are sued and lose. In the days before social media, proving a group effort was very difficult. Now, all the company lawyers need to do is come here or jetflyers and download the discussions that are inevitable during negotiations. So, let's not kid ourselves that anything would or could change significantly during negotiations.

Saving us from ourselves is difficult. Some battles are already lost and IMO, the C/O schedules some choose to work is one of them. I think we need to focus on this retirement POS and see if we can at least chalk up one tally in the victory column.