Originally Posted by
Smutter
Alpa will not get anything, as with any slight improvements we have received, the company will come to alpa and say sign off on this. Alpa has not negotiated one thing for us, it all has been the company coming to alpa and saying, here we are going to give this to the pilots(sure alpa may have been able to tweak a few things). The company will wait and see if this hurts recruitment, then and only then will envoy see anything.
But let's be realistic, the company is doing a great job of hiring guys who have never flown a plane until 5 months ago, and haven't touched their helicopters in 12 years, and are also celebrating their 55th birthday this year.
We are also pretty strong on cadets as well. Have to give it to management, they could see the writing on the wall and made a brilliant play with RTP/Cadet programs. Essentially allowed them to act the way they have because people keep showing up to class. This isn't a knock to the RTP or cadets btw, just pointing out the facts. ALPA, along cant do anything.
If the company doesn't want to negotiate they won't, pretty simple. What ALPA screwed up on was the last LOA, this was the chance to get everything better for years to come, however they focused on moving their PP's out. Again, the PP's went through a lot so I am not throwing them under the bus, however we gave up our best opportunity in years for them to flow faster. What the union can and should do is show us what the normal standard is in regards to our operation, that way we all know what we "have" to do and what is "optional" in terms of getting the job done. Is calling for fuel a "mandatory" or "optional" duty of the flight crew? Safety is clearly an issue now, we need some guidance on what areas need to be "slowed" down in the name of safety. Have to be careful with these kinds of things.