Originally Posted by
akulahunter
From the people I have talked to the company has not proposed a staffing model, so once again, whoever you are getting your information from is an idiot. Not sure about an unstacking percentage, but I find that hard to believe also when the company blew up negotiations years ago after the union agreed to an unstacking percentage in SmartPref, but people outside of the negotiation wanted 100%. The same people are still in charge in upper management and there has been no indication that those people have changed their minds about wanting 100% control. (not to mention, without a staff model, unstacking is a chump's play anyway.)
Now the real question... you asked how can we be lightyears apart. For me... No LTD = No Vote. For me, that is the Grand Canyon. Throw in: no block or better by leg, no protection for day trips (or alternately TAFB rig which I have heard the company balked at), continued reduced day off months, no day off protection (i.e. moving days off), continued involuntary TDY. I believe THAT is how we are lightyears apart. Individually, any of these things (except LTD) are probably negotiable, but together they equal a chasm that isn't close to being bridged.
I just wish that people on here would try to see both sides of what is going on. I have spoken to people on both sides of this, if you ask the right person in management, you'll see that what the union is putting out is much more accurate than the positive spin that certain management/instructors have put on this from the company side (most of which have no idea of what is actually happening in the room). The devil is always in the details. (For example, Issue X, has five items. When comparing to the industry standard, if Item One is higher by 1% and Items Two through Five are lower by 50%, is Issue X higher or standard?) The company has a way of "telling the truth" that is not always the truth you think. Remember during COVID they told us that we needed to take pay cuts because the government was only giving them 70% of payroll. True, but it was 70% of 2019 payroll when the average pilot credited 85 hours, which more than covered our payroll for min hours, ETO, etc. Take everything (from both sides) with a grain of salt.
No matter what any of us think about what is going on, I guarantee you (100%) that logic is not what is being used to solve this problem. As stated above, Pilots look at this as a pilot issue and see the pilot hiring environment. Nobody knows what M's plan is (JR made his plans known in SFB). The company has a long-term plan, pilots may not be a part of it. Uncle M was on TV this weekend for 20+ minutes in an interview prior to the NASCAR race. He looked pretty happy there. When was the last time he was happy with the airline? Unless you are Uncle M, JR, or SS, you probably have no idea where this train is headed. Plan accordingly.
For those of you in group 2, I'll see you on the picket line.
[Fun poll: how many bases will we have in September 2023?]
We agree on a lot of this stuff - especially LTD. That is a nonstarter.
As for the staffing model, my source was pretty definitive and i haven't been wrong yet on sharing the stuff i'm hearing. Management proposed a staffing model. i was told it was not United or Jetblue but it guaranteed a minimum number of pilots per aircraft. I don't know what that number was, only that it was put in the last offer from MG. i checked back with my source on the unstack again and it was also in the last offer with the staffing model. The only detail i was given was that it was less than Delta's unstack.
I don't think any pilots care about a TAFB rig - why would you with our current day trips? every pilot i have talked to and common sense is that guaranteeing the day trip model is way more important than a TAFB that is irrelevant to 99% of our trips.
I also have a hard time believing MG would be chasing AR and flying down to goodyear just so he could turn this place into a hospitality company - that doesn't pass the smell test. Why would MG retire from CEO and then spend 2-3 weeks a month with AR if the plan was to spin off the airline? Maybe he is just trying to push through a crappy deal to boost the stock, etc. and if that is the case then he's an idiot for thinking the Union would let us vote on a crappy deal, but I think there's more to this.
we'll never know MG's true motivations but if i'm a billionaire who just retired as CEO, i wouldn't be chasing down some Union boss and insert myself into contract negotiations unless it was a huge priority and critical to the company where i hold the most shares. will be interesting to see what if anything we learn in the coming weeks.
union reps have been adamant that the union busting media blitz is coming, hopefully AR will give us some more details and explanation when the blitz starts.