Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I believe there was a fence in the Roberts award on widebodies already on the property at NWA at the time of the merger. No Republic pilots were allowed to bid those slots. Growth aircraft delivered after the merger were available to both sides via a ratio. Replacement aircraft for pre merger NWA aircraft were also fenced for the 20 year time frame.
Incorrect. There were red/green quotas, not fences, for certain seats...most WBs had red favoring quotas, and left seats on the MD-80/DC-9s/some 757 favored the green side.
With that said, all seats were open to both sets of pilots right away. Senior green guys were sitting in WB left seats almost immediately after the award.
If there were insufficent bidders for a quota'ed seat, then it went to anyone who could hold it. Also don't forget that it was a DOH list. Once a green guy got into a seat (or vice versa), he exercised his full DOH for bidding purposes (schedules, vacations, etc), which often meant that red guys were pushed downward. Many, if not most, redbook guys moved downard on their aircraft's bid list from day 1.
Growth aircraft adjusted the quotas. The arbitrators were VERY generous in what they considered replacement aircraft, but were subject to the same quotas as the aircraft they replaced.
This system did play havoc with blue bidding. If you were a blue book guy holding a decent seat, say left seat in the 320, and you got displaced, you normally would have held recall rights (first right of return over someone who had never held it). But some arbitration in the early 90s held that the Robert's quotos overrode recall rights, so a blue guys recall rights would be trumped by a red/green guy who had never held the position.
All in all, I view the lack of significant fences in this award a plus, not a minus.
Nu