dckozak

This rig vs rate debate has gone on (at FedEx) at least since before the first contract. I remember our nego chair (who name, at the moment escapes me) during a roadshow explain that in negotiations with the company various trip rigs were suggested, up to, I believe, 2.64:1 (that's nine hours of pay per day) to (which in a cost neutral environment) provide a lower hourly rate that we (would hope ) the company could hide as a effective pay raise because the published hourly would look low. The company didn't bite and in the end the union was offered a cost neutral 3.47:1 (the old rig, 7 hours per day) or 4:1 (what we took, until 01Jan08, the current rig). The MPDP also changed in lock step so hub turning pilots went from 3.5 hours per duty to 3 hours. The thinking of the NC, as explained at this meeting was, in taking the 6 hours a day (6 hrs per 24 TAFB or 6 hrs per hub turn) the hub turning pilots, flying the longer legs (over 3 hours to and or from a hub) and any hard time flying whether intl or dom, would benefit from more pay at a higher rate than the old 3.47:1 rig/MPDP. If you look at the pairings of longer hub turns you will see this to be the case, any MEM trip that out and backs or lays over to return the next hub turn (day or night), you will see pay over 6 hours. The short "easy" turns, with short block times default to 6 hours but the longer ones pay, in essence, hard time. Likewise, trips from MEM to STN, VCP and other "long" flights with minimum layovers which pay hard time, the effective pay is higher than if it was "cost neutral".

So, a long winded explanation with many sentences running on and a paragraph that is bigger than some short stories. The problem with taking the 4:1 rig/MPDP was we also accepted a pay rate that looked appreciably higher than before, even though we now, on average, "work" one hour less per day. Now when we try to compare ourselves to our peers (say, using the APC pay rate comparison) we look higher paid than we really are because most airlines don't use the 4:1 rig but something closer to the 3.47:1 we used before contract one. I don't know the UPS trip rig off hand, but I'm guess its either 3.5 or 3.75 to 1, which means for a given same hourly rate, they are paid for more hours than we are. The adjustment in the FedEx trip rig does provide a "hidden" pay increase for most intl pilots and some dom flying at FedEx. The fact that the MPDP wasn't adjusted too has been mentioned by several (I would guess Bus and slave ship drivers ) as to being unfair and a uneven windfall that is not shared amongst all at FedEx. Well prospective is in the eye of the beholder, if you divide the TAFB of hub turn trips with or without DH's, you will find that they paid more than if they were on trip rig. The MPDP provisions in our contract were held on to, even when the Co. tried to have us give them away. For the Dom pilot, do nightly or daily hub turns this has paid more, based on TAFB than most intl trips.

Now we are left trying to recover an industry comparable rig so our hourly rate reflects the true cost of doing business on a TAFB basis. No matter what we negotiate, if we cost neutral our pay (rates) we are only deluding ourselves when we degrade our rigs and accept a "industry leading" hourly pay rate.