Originally Posted by
Gone Flying
401k is not a small chunk of change, assuming a year 3 737 FO is out on leave thats probably 25K/year, a year 6 777FO is probably close to 40k/year. then you can factor in all the retaining costs to bring them back up once they return from leave, assuming they left after IOE now they have wasted at about 50K in training costs as well. now if they are not on long term leave but are regularly having to place mil leave on awarded trips due to conflicts with the military that can increase the cost significantly, now the company has to burn a reserve or potentially pay 200% to cover their trip. this can be particularly problematic with last minute stuff, im not in the military but ive talked to people who claim to have put mil leave on trips inside of 24hrs to report. not bashing mil pilots but to say there is no drag associated with mil leave is not true.
You say you're not bashing military pilots, but then...you seem to do it.
Not only do we have pilots on MLLV, but we have dispatchers, mechanics, flight attendants, agents, you name it. The entire corporation has to deal with it in all departments. Also, all of corporate America has to deal with it from Jiffylube to Walmart to Delta to American to JetBlue to Southwest. it is what it is.
There was a determination by the National Command Authority back in the 1980's to shift the burden of national defense to citizen soldiers and to have the states as well as corporate America shoulder more of the burden.
I guess you could dig up Reagan's corpse and both chambers of congress and moan and groan to them about it, but it's the cost of doing business today and it's how we will fight wars in the today and in the future.
The same rules apply to all players, to include state and local governments and police forces and fire, EMS, etc. I think I have made my point fairly clear.
We have a former MEC Chair at Continental who went on a 21 year MLLV. So what. A 3 year MLLV is not big deal. And yes, putting in MLLV inside of 24 hours may be an inconvenience. if it was, the company would staff more reserves. Pop up taskings happen. The guard/reserve continues to do more with less. It's called "military necessity." if a dude or dudet took a 3 year MLLV so what. Nothing you say, or purport to say, or insinuate, or hint at is going to change any of that.
The more the company does to pee off the pilots the more mllv gets dropped. PBS is what it is. Pilots will drop MLLV after they see their PBS award and decide what they can and can't do.