Originally Posted by
BobZ
Well....it began with moralizing over the sanctity of (lost) family time and being forced....forced mind you...to work. Hilarious.
And progressed to the FAs have it and JB and the nebulous 'industry standard' plea. Oh...and the claim its a tool to modify and control selected pilots bidding behaviors.
Emotional and pretty adolescent persuations.
Any of those rationales at the bargaining table are not likely to get any traction. Or sympathy.......
See, its them you will have to convince to cough up the $$....not me or any other pilot.
You could try floating your advocacy to your cpo....or maybe email the ceo directly?
He may be completely unaware of the horrors of the conditions of your employment at delta.
So go ahead and ask for it. If it gets worked into the pwa costing we all get to vote on if its worth it or not.
In the mean time stop with the sob stories about 'forced holiday labor', FA working condition envy, and the heavy burden other pilots bidding behaviors place on your life.
Everyone knows what's in store when they take an airline job.
No one is whining about working a holiday(s). Some find more value in having that time off than others.
Some pilots would rather have a 1.5x override than the holiday off. You contend they won't be swayed. Perhaps not, either way it wouldn't take away any senior pilots ability to bid the holiday off, just reward the pilot working a bit more.
My observation after a couple of decades in this business is that money motivates some pilots, perhaps your bidding pattern is immune from monetary concerns but I assure you that in the other 14,000+ pilots there are some that are.
Ironically, I've thought about this for years, and I can actually avoid the holidays for the most part currently. Right now with younger kids, I too would avoid the holidays even with the override, but I'm not everyone.
Someday, I may bid into a category again where the holidays are harder to get off, and I'd think a 1.5x override would make the trip a bit more acceptable. Eventually, my kids out of the house, I'd bid the holiday trip on purpose with a 48hr layover in Europe and take my wife with me.
I've brought up holiday pay override every contract negotiation and survey. I don't whine about it in the interim, but if we don't ask now, when?
Improving our contract with ideas from others is not the eternal sin. I have no idea how much it would cost. Lots of devil in the details. How many GS's go out each holiday? How much CPO enforcement goes into holiday coverage? 20yrs ago, I got tagged with SDO (duty officer at my squadron) during the Xmas period. When I dropped mil leave for this duty, I got called and asked to send in a copy of my actual orders for this period (the only time in 11yrs of reserves).
Obviously the company / ALPA would have to know the data to cost out the details, but if you never ask, you surely never get.