Originally Posted by
P Gibbons
Nohaz -- Are you also in the MD/Memphis?
I will tell you that employee goodwill at a company like Fedex has a pricetag. If the company keeps pi$$ing us off, next time they really need support (the weekly operational emergency), I think people might not be inclined to help.
I am in the bottom 1,000. I doubt I am furlough fodder. However, if we have a big excess, I would most likely be displaced. In my position (and I respect other opinions), I'd prefer BLG cuts rather than downgrade position. I'd rather work 60 hours at a higher rate than 68 at a lower one. That see4 guy that was so controversial didn't seem to get this point. If you are in the bottom 80-90% of your seat, an excess bid might just significantly reduce your hourly pay. Just something to think about if you think furloughing some pilots would benefit the ones that stay on property. I can live on 60/month for some time. I hope most of us can as well. But working the same days as before (reserve and flex guys) at a lower pay is wrong. If the company doesn't need us, then why make us work the MAXIMUM days a month. The company can lower this at their will, but chooses not too. Dropping should also be easy since we have too many pilots, but this isn't the case as well.....
The company is saving a nickel now, but the cost of their actions will most likely be much more significant than what they are saving now.
End of second rant
Typical airline management vs. union tactics.
As for FedEx, they're obviously trying to establish a new era in "good will" with the pilot union - attempting to exploit every gray area of the contract to their benefit and to the destruction of any "good will" that formerly existed.
Hopefully all the koolaid drinkers that would "do anything" for our benevolent dictator (FWS) will snap out of it and realize what's happening around here.
Evidently, the company has decided that spending extra money to continue the tradition of "good will" with the pilot union is no longer what they want to do.
Someone has used the phrase - penny wise and pound foolish - extremely appropriate in this case. They ARE gonna save money in the short-term. They obviously have decided that long-term "good will" between the pilot union and management is no longer important.
Probably, the long-term consequences of their actions won't affect their next management bonuses, so they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.
Sad......but not unexpected.