Originally Posted by
max8222
FXLAX posted "I dont want what other passenger airlines have. I want THIS airline to have BETTER than what passenger airlines have. We have a good system form that provides mostly what most pilots like. Now I'd like to see us go towards being industry leading at some point in the next couple of contract cycles. I'll do my best and my part to help us get there. Its my goal but at least its not to toil in the mid to lower teir pilot contracts."
I thoroughly agree with this. I used PBS as one large item that we do not want, I could have added things such as their vacation which is way worse than ours. I used one instance why we do not want to preach industry standard. We want what is best for Fedex pilots and how we operate. Of course other airlines provide metrics and we should not ignore what they have.
In the past when we were way ahead the company wanted to compare us to the majors, of course they only want to compare when we are ahead. Now that we are behind they say we are different and you can't compare. I know who the enemy is. I might have been here a long time but I know who pays me and also sees me as a cost center where they will try and save money.
Yes, I acknowledged that we have about three things we are arguably ahead on. But that's why I listed a whole bunch of things we are way behind on. So if you are going to say in essence, we cant ask for that because pbs or any other list of things, I come back with the list of things we are not industry standard, let alone leading. So again, my only point is, don't throw that pbs bull out when there are more things we are behind on than ahead on. Don't argue on behalf of what management says, they don't need the help. This is the time we need to be unified and not show any weaknesses. If you trully feel that we cant ask for something becuase pbs, then please just don't say it at all. Let those who are trying to be unifed and strong take the lead. Having pilots argue against the collective pilots' interest only weakens us at the table.
We aren't going to get everything this time around. I mean, we are only negotaiting a few things on TA2. But we need to start somewhere. Maybe in a couple of contract cycles we will be back on top and managment will change their tune again on who to compare us to.