Originally Posted by
Madella0124
If everyone stopped picking up JAs, what would it do? Right now they can contract as much as they want. They will just contract more, we will lose more flying. Right now it’s 15 jets, they can easily find 15/20 more. Then we are getting sued by the company for a work action, how will that look to the mediator? The boxes will move regardless of JAs or not. Just a matter of who is doing the flying, an IPA pilot, a management pilot or an Atlas pilot. I would say fly as much as you want while they can subcontract as much as they can
Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt.
Nearly every sentence in this argument assumes the company has unlimited freedom, unlimited subcontract capacity, and unlimited legal leverage — and that the pilot group has none.
“They’ll just contract more.”
They already are. That’s not a new threat — it’s the status quo. If the answer to subcontracting pressure is always “fly more so they don’t do it,” then the company has discovered a permanent cheat code: delay the contract indefinitely while pilots self-police their own leverage.
“We’ll lose more flying.”
Flying is already being lost. JAs don’t create subcontracting authority — management decisions do. Treating voluntary overtime as the dam holding back subcontracting is exactly the mindset the company benefits from.
“We’ll get sued for a work action.”
Declining voluntary flying is not a work action. No one is advocating sick-outs, slow-downs, or contract violations. Framing normal pilot choice as legally perilous is pure fear-based rhetoric.
“How will that look to the mediator?”
Mediators understand leverage. They also understand incentives. A pilot group absorbing unlimited extra flying while past amendable sends exactly one message: delay is profitable.
And yes — the boxes will move. They always do. The question isn’t whether the boxes move, it’s who bears the cost of keeping the system propped up while the company drags its feet.
Voluntary JAs are just that — voluntary. Choosing not to pick them up isn’t sabotage, it isn’t extremism, and it isn’t disloyalty. It’s pilots recognizing that time past amendable has a price — and that price is currently being paid entirely by the pilot group.