ATR - We have no traditional trip and duty rig you are correct. We do have a 4 hr min day, which actually works better than a rig for our typical schedules. That 4 hr min day actually adds more to the paycheck (3-7%). We also have the rest of the creature comforts in the contract, like full cancelation pay, block or better and other work rules that support the pay. You can't realistically compare the new ASA contract to a 2004 Mesaba contract that has a bankruptcy LOA sitting in it.

As for only having 1/2 DH pay. In the grand scheme of things, we should be paid 100%, I agree. But when the majority of DH's occur on reserve lines, it doesn't matter what a DH pays... reserves are always on guarantee. Further - you can't win them all in contract negotiations. I'd much rather accept 1/2 DH pay if it means gaining in other areas. Especially since this contract was signed in 2004 with the Big Sky gun held to our head... at the time scope was priority #1.

No... not putting up a good fight in 2004 and not fighting even harder during bankruptcy to save most of our contract would have been allowing ourselves to be taken advantage of. Tell me... given the circumstances, what should we have done? It almost seems as if you know nothing about our contract and how we got here today. But given you're a JR ASA pilot, that a furlough might affect, I wouldn't expect you to know what was going on between 2001-2007 at Mesaba. Best of luck to you at ASA and I hope they really don't furlough.