Originally Posted by A320fumes

Oscar:

There's a little more going on @ CAL than you might be aware of. The company, with the help of a few of our pilot collaborators, acquired a scheduling system that abrogates seniority and is basically a blank check for them to steal our days off.
PBS.
I am a big fan of PBS, when implemented properly. It's a system in which a pilot submits certain constraints to custom build his/her schedule. Once all pilots have submitted their bids the company submits it's constraints and schedules are built in seniority order. The problem is that our pilot group didn't negotiate what the companies constraints could be. Therefore the company changes them monthly as they see fit. In a normal PBS system the pilot's and companies constraints are negotiated and fixed. If the bid closes at noon, the company hits the enter button and schedules are available almost immediately. Because we didn't negotiate the company's "overall system constraints", the company has 5 days to just change their constraints and re-run the program until they've achieved the most economically optimum schedules and publishes that one, irrespective of seniority. And it's usually still a few hours late. Since the implementation of PBS, sick-leave is the only option that most pilots feel they have and has therefore drastically increased. Personally, I think that refusal to fly open time would be a better solution over the long haul, but we've got a lot of scabs who'll take up the slack for the company, rendering such an effort futile. Scabs, still today, ruin the careers of hard-working, principal professional pilots. You need to understand that you are working under the legacy of Herb Kelleher, and we're under Frank Lorenzo and his scabs. You have no idea of the working conditions here and should reserve judgment to those who walk in your own footsteps. Don't mean to offend. But you've been fortunate to work for a company like SWA. Hope your plight continues to go well.