The DashRocks,
With respect I have to disagree with your opinion. You are saying that this contract will be better than the exisiting, but for who and how?
Line guarantee, is no doubt a good thing about this contract that will affect all pilots. However there is no guarantee that the company will create lines more than minimum guarantee. Therefore this does not constitute a pay increase.
Cancellation pay, along with line guarantee, is the second of only two definitive pluses for this contract. It will affect all pilots positively.
Block or better per ALPA's own comments will affect pilots in ORD and JFK more than other bases and may constitute up to 20% raise for those domiciles. What about the people in other domiciles. Don't those pilots also deserve a pay raise and don't they work equally as hard as those in ORD and JFK?
FO's get a 2% or so pay rise in 2010, don't captains deserve a pay raise too?
Then again look at inflation, is 2% really a pay raise? Arguably no.
We lose our current 150% premium pay for JA. You are correct the JA rules changed. They changed for the worse. Under the new contract I don't ever expect to have the company pay the 200% JA pay. Let's face it the only time we got JA'd as when there was insufficient reserve coverage. Oh look, when there is insufficient reserve coverage it now becomes a legal JA. No need to pay 200%. What about the Harris Award. Any monkeying with our schedules at any time required JA pay. Did we just give this away?
Pro rated days off table. Under old system if I had 7 days vacation I could still have at least 9 days off (28 day bid). Now I only get 9 days (31 day bid) or 8 days (30 day bid) off. Why should vacation cut into your days off? I heard ALPA say it is to do with PBS but surely you could just load each week of vacation as 21 hours (or 3 hours per day) into PBS and still keep the 11 day off and reduce our number of hours PBS tries to assign by the number of hours we were on vacation
QOL is a wash and is not improved under the new contract. For it to improve I need to be able to trade partial pairings to make my line commutable on the front and back of my trip. This new contract makes no binding regulations to permit me to do this. I need to have a guarantee that open time will remain available to line holders for a period of time after the SAP to permit me to make a trip commutable. How will QOL be improved for anybody under this contract especially considering the way pairigns are constructed is unchanged?
The bottom line. This contract only increases pay for a portion of the pilots and will not improve quality of life for most.
I too could have gone to a better regional but chose Mesa like you for the quick upgrade in order to get my PIC then move on. However as you know the days of the quick upgrade are gone. How will you feel about working under this TA for another 5 or more years?
Ignore all the Mesa bankruptcy stuff. It is irrelevant. What is relevant is what are we worth? What responsibility do we have? What should we be getting paid? How much rest and time off should we get given our responsibilities and our time away from home?
Lets fight for what we are worth now not what we may be worth in two years. Lets fight for everyone in the pilot group not just a select few. Lets fight for what we need if we were all to be here in 10 years time.
The language in this contract is just not good enough. It could have been written better by a 15 year old. I'd be embarassed to show anybody this TA and call it a contract.
It is just not good enough and we deserve better not only for us but for the people that come after us.
Stand up and vote no. Vote for what is right. Please don't be selfish. Your vote will affect every pilot at Mesa now and in the future.
What is the worst that can happen if we vote no? We stay with the current contract for a bit longer. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Vote no, please.