I'd prefer they fix it by more properly staffing (or scheduling) the airline rather than us fixing it for them so they can continue to run everything hot. We used to do just fine when they had schedulers actually call pilots one-by-one, mainly because we didn't have the ridiculous number of GS we see these days. Bigger batch sizes simply allow them to continue the status quo, or worse, encourages them to push it even more.
You're omitting a critical part. When schedulers called us one-by-one, it was under a system where a GS was
not a proffer, and if you answered the phone, as long as you were in position to legally fly the trip (i.e. hadn't consumed a beer recently, etc) you
had to fly the trip. Pretty easy to cover when the scheduler was pretty much assured of finishing the trip coverage process if a pilot picked up the phone.
With ARCOS, we made GS proffers-only, which is something I really liked. As far as I am concerned (and I am sure that I am the minority here) the large batch sizes and possibly getting a phone call in the middle of the night for a trip you likely had no chance of getting
was the reasonable tradeoff for making GS proffers through ARCOS. So many pilots have been hired since we went to ARCOS that they don't even know that we secured a contractual improvement merely as part of the ARCOS program itself! (but I don't blame them; no new hire should be expected to know or even care how things used to be, only how they are when they join the ranks). But if you don't like getting a call in the middle of the night, why not turn off your phone or silence it. Last time I checked, no one ever submitted a GS request under duress, so that's not too much to ask.
But we did have legit complaints with the large number of callouts for just a trip or two. Somehow, with non-seniority list JL at the helm--clueless--our negotiators negotiated not only batch size limitations but financial penalties to boot for the company violating the batch sizes. I'm guessing the company has buyers remorse on a massive scale. I've flown with many an FO who had a blanket GS in, with ZERO intent of flying one, just to get the batch size payout--that setup absolutely wouldn't have happened under the prior system.
The zero-risk current status quo encourages thousands of pilots to submit blanket GS requests while having zero intention of accepting or flying one--but it does slow down the process--a lot. To complain about the inevitable increase in RR and IAs (which is a company mess of their creation) seems a bit hypocritical to me.
I sincerely hope our union doesn't give up current batch sizes, unless we get a giant ask in return.
We shouldn't give up the current negotiated language for free--not for a minute. I think we can all agree with that. I think that our MEC is fully aware that we can address some company needs re the batch size issue, and associated "side effects"--but securing permanent contractual improvements for us as part of that.