Originally Posted by
duvie
I don’t think most junior people feel they are owed anything. I honestly think that’s your preconceived notion about what someone’s beliefs are … But I think the idea that junior pilots are furlough fodder for bad Times is not an idea I would like to take as a core UAL ALPA belief going forward. I would rather have provisions à la FedEx that allow for some reduction in MPG for unforecast events. And plan my finances accordingly for the events we will inevitable hit every 10 years or so. I’m okay if my earning potential is less because of this. I would rather fly with junior FOs knowing we as UAL pilots do our best to take care of those junior pilots who take a huge chance coming here in their 40s.
we have legal teams our dues pay a lot of money for to look at how the language could be crafted, and even then I would have to read it for myself. But as stated many times, as a junior captain not holding a furlough letter, I for one would consider a (Hypothetical) TA that effectively delivers me a 66% paycut (NB CA to 50% NB FO) If it kept people off the street
I agree that 'for the most part' junior pilots don't feel like they're owed anything. Whether junior pilots are furlough fodder during bad times is completely in the hands of the company. It is to our own detriment iff we CHOOSE to take ownership of their decisions. Our goal as a union should be (and IS) to make furloughs as painful as possible for the company and attempt to INFLUENCE their decision. Let me ask you this... When you provided input to ALPA regarding your desires for Section 6, did you include any ideas on the furlough section of our contract? The best thing we can do is to negotiate desirable changes to our CBA for future unforeseeable, unprecedented turmoil.
To be fair I'll acknowledge that there are occasions when complying with our contract causes sufficient 'pain' to the company that they wish to negotiate. When this happens we should CONSIDER 'cashing in' on those contractual issues. I say consider because cashing in may actually be counter productive and decided based on emotion. I will carefully consider any TA, but I will not start from a 'neutral' position. I will start from the jaded, experienced, pragmatic 'No' position and be open to the possibility that it's acceptable. If I decide not to support this potential TA it doesn't mean I lack empathy or understanding about the impact on furloughed pilots.
As far as our current rumor status I'll say this. My experience says that the rumors accurately give a broad outline of the agreement, but are incomplete and biased. We should use the information available to consider and test our own opinions and positions, while remembering that it's just a head start. There's no sense in reaching conclusions or arguing 'what if's' at this point, but it IS worth considering whether the rumored AIP is too divisive, too imbalanced, poorly conceived, etc.. Big picture stuff.
Good luck to all of us.