TonyC

Robert, err, Tim might be a nice guy. I've heard nothing to contradict that. He may be very likable. Likability is not the issue. Will we decide to complain when the next "outsider" gets the same treatment but we don't like him? When The Company observes that we didn't complain when Tim got a number, will we respond with, "Yeah, but we liked Tim. We don't like this guy."

Ironically, PC's incompetence as a manager may very well have motivated the search for an outsider to succeed him. But when they created a new position in the hierarchy and hired an outsider to fill it, it was The Company telling us that there was nobody on the Seniority List qualified to fill the position. I know there were pilots on the seniority list who were well-qualified and aspired to those positions, but we all shared a big ole collective slap in the face when they were by-passed in favor of a retired pilot from somewhere else.

Well, slap in the face or not, they don't ask us, and we don't have much say. But when they turn around after rejecting every pilot with a seniority number and give that same outsider a seniority number, now they're monkeying with our Collective Bargaining Agreement. A Seniority Number is a privilege, not some video game badge they can just pass out like candy.


We have a finite number of training resources. Simulators, classrooms, instructors, hours in the day, days in the week. A place in the pipeline is a place in the pipeline, and when a token figurehead is assigned a place in the pipeline, a REAL pilot is denied that place.


And before you argue it's just one spot, just one seniority number, let me remind you that I happen to be intimately aware of how only one number can make the difference between going to Anchorage or going to Hong Kong. To me, seniority is a BIG deal.






.