Originally Posted by
JUNEBUG82
I would argue it’s not as simple as this either/or scenario. It seems the pilot group could present some version of the following that would be in the best interest of both the company and the pilots:
1) Pilots agree to lower MPG to 55 until July 1 2021
2) Company agrees to not furlough until July 1 2021
3) Company agrees to give up on the scope fight (or pick any priority) once things are back to normal and contract negotiations resume.
This is oversimplified to a degree. But the point is that agreements can be drafted in an almost infinite number of ways and can be as creative as needed. An agreement that would address all the opposing concerns I’ve seen on this thread could likely be reached if the pilot group was on board with the fundamental idea of everyone making a temporary sacrifice for the sake of avoiding job losses for a few. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. There’s a lot of talk of brotherhood and unity, but you know the old saying about watching what people do not what they say...
How would the pilot group view such a proposal if the company negotiators put this idea on the table during section 6 negotiations as a way to introduce flexibility into our contract (normal days...pre-COVID)? Would our negotiators conclude this as a 'no cost' win-win item? What would we expect in return?
There's a lot of talk that our contract was not meant for a COVID type scenario. Our contract is mature and the pilots who wrote it and voted for it over the decades have witnessed many varied downturns. Suddenly we're supposed to believe that none of our predecessors thought of including a reduced line value in the contract? The contract ALREADY has language that dictates what happens to the line values in the event of a furlough.
5-B-1-a The Line Production Average (“LPA”) for a Category shall be no less than seventy-two (72) Line Credit hours and no greater than eighty-four (84) Line Credit hours, set to the nearest minute.
5-B-1-a-(1) When any Pilot is on Involuntary Furlough, the LPA for a Category shall be no less than seventy-four (74) Line Credit hours and no greater than eighty-two (82) Line Credit hours, set to the nearest minute.
As you can see LPA is directly addressed in our contract -- in the event of a furlough our LPA gets tightened from a range of 72-84 to a range of 74-82. We're not being asked to consider an oversight, we're being asked to completely change the current language. Convincing me that it's a good idea (and non concessionary) is a very high hurdle.