The emergency time off (ETO) program was “voluntary” in the sense that you could volunteer for it.

The catch? If an ETO slot was offered, it HAD to be filled. If it wasn’t filled voluntarily, it would have been filled involuntarily in reverse seniority, by base.

Oh and they wanted no limited to that. So they could furlough the seasonally weak (but high seniority) bases.

Base A has 10 pilots, and it’s the most senior base at the company? 10 ETOs for base A. Which means whether you volunteer or not, you’re going out.