Oh yea! Back in 1996 USAir wanted to furlough and downgrade Captains but the union contract forbid furloughs and we had a min number of Captains clause. Someone in management got the bright idea to move all the excess pilots to the Fokker-28 (aka "Smurf-Jet). With 67 seats the PIC was paid $2/hr less than 737 F/O. I was on the DC-9 DCA based and was displaced to CLT F-28 Captain. They held me in DCA for the max 4 months and then tried to hold me a 5th month until I called and said no way. So I got to sit at home from May-July when I started F-28 initial. I finished IOE in August. Well guess what happens when you put a whole lot of excess pilots on one fleet type? There wasn't even enough flying to keep us current. So USAir came up with the "inactive list". We were sent home with 71 hour guarantee and had no responsibilities. I worked at a computer store from September 1996 until February 1997 while I still drew my 71 hours. ALPA grieved the inactive list saying it should be done by seniority bidding rather than assigning it to the junior pilots but the Arbitrator said since the issue wasn't addressed in the contract the company could do what they wanted.