Originally Posted by
opdeliber
Im an Alaskan Airways pilot and I am not on reserve but do commute...the phrase "if you live in base, its not a bad gig" needs to be taken out to pasture and shot dead, and a couple extra bullets for good measure. The possibility of only having 7 complete calendar day off in a month is "that bad." You are on the hook for 23 days of the month. No thank you. It is time to wake up and make this terrible place to work an actual good place to be a pilot.
Thanks for the honesty! I'm flying today with a reserve guy that got an award for August with three sets of trips...no reserve for him in August. 17 days off, ten of which are at the very end of the month.
I understand how it feels to think that what works for you should work for everybody. Alaska seems to have a senior pilot mentality. Our MEC at VX has representation from junior to me (I'm top 3%) to just out of reserve. I really appreciate the representation of views that we have.
I would also say that our reps have met with a number of the larger MEC's and even regional MEC's while we were independent to see what works/doesn't work. We never for moment thought that we knew everything but have been determined to keep all options open and negotiate from a position of knowledge.
We will at some point fix this mess that is the Alaska contract but it may be time consuming and long. I am not impressed with the management.
Best