Sitting here at the bottom of the list, I must throw in my 2 pesos.

With every IPA member I have flown with over the last few months, I have brought up that I am worried about a furlough coming very soon. Keep in mind that I have not flown with anyone in the past few months who is any more junior than 4th year pay. Each and every individual has looked at me like I have 3 heads. My point: If you're not in the bottom 300, at this moment, nobody knows you exist or cares about your vulnerability. Utter denial that a furlough is even remotely possible. I'm not saying I'm unhappy about this or PO'd at anyone--just that it's inconceivable to most everybody right now unless you're in that 300.

I was at the GMM and saw the "slide." This made me happy because at least the union finally acknowledges that it is a possibility and they intend to do something if it happens and are thinking ahead. The disturbing part is that the "slide" has little chance of working before all of us poor saps get that piece of registered mail from UPS. They are not going to tell the union--the first guy that checks his mail is going to tell the union. At this point it will be too late to enact any strategies because, well, UPS has made up their mind and that's that--they've already thought this through to the end.

The only (proactive) good thing that really comes of this open time ban will be that it will minimize the number of folks furloughed and keep it delayed as long as possible. UPS knows right now exactly how many they can furlough. They know exactly what an open time ban will do and exactly what they can have management do to fill the gaps. They have a pretty damn good idea of how many people will still fly open time and JA.

There was some other point I wanted to make, but it escapes me--I'll edit later...