CRJ,
We voted for a strike, as right now.
North American Airline is a B757-200ER/767-300ER world wide operator. I have been to more places in my short three years then I can list. I need to hit China, Russia, and Australia, then I have covered the world. Most of our stuff is supplement. Average leg is 6 hours. Done 10 hour legs a bunch of times. Pay is listed on this web page. I am not sure if it up to date. They gave us a pay cut. Company said they were loosing money. Then we were bought by World Airways. Now that we are public, we had a banner year in 2004 and we got our pay reinstated. The crews are great. Had more then many, many great layovers. Got a lot of cool stuff that I have bought in places like Africa, Israel, Kuwait, Germany, Japan, Guam, Marshall Islands. Had an elephant bang into the side of my truck when I was in Africa!! Gotten drunk in Ireland on St. Patrick day. And been to the top of the tower in Paris.
We are in contract talks now. Management plays with us. They trip extension a lot. Crew planning is for the birds. Crew Travel is birds. Go someplace in this world, and have no ride to the hotel, or better yet no hotel!! A lot of little things that can make you angry. This is the type of flying you will only see at places like this or World and Omie. It is great for a single person. From experience, when you are on some Greek Island tanning and drinking away on the beach with beautiful women around you, and you girl is stuck in a office back home. When you come home with that tan and smile on your face, you will hear about!! I have enclosed some other things people put about us.
There is lots of attrition and more to come. It used to be a great place to work, but that's in the past now. Granted, this is just my point of view, but you won't hear anything different from anyone who is not a newhire.
If you're just looking for a place to keep current or need a stepping stone, this may be an excellent opportunity. If you're looking for a place to hang your hat, look elsewhere. It's been fun, but it's definitely time to move on. Since January, when punitive pay cuts were imposed because we unionized, 27 pilots out of 125 have left so far. Some left flying altogether.
New hires can expect to be on the road most of their reserve days. This fluctuates with the time of year, but you can expect trip extensions while you're overseas. There is no contract, so rules change as management feels is necessary. Using legalese, I will say that the company "does not appear" to be negotiating in good faith. A strike ballot was just sent out.
Any questions PM me.