Our N.C. Speaks For ME!
As mentioned in an earlier post, that was the mantra to keep the company from circumventing the N.C. and dealing with the pilots directly. Now it seems some people are twisting it to mean we should vote whichever way they tell us. If thats the case then we should just give them the authority and not have a vote at all. Paul Cassel was on the last N.C. at FPA and thank God his T.A. was voted down.
I keep hearing this was the best the N.C. could deliver due to the current environment. You've got to be kidding me! Stock over $100. Record profits for the past 7 years. A billon dollar contract with the Air Force. Supposedly 98% unity within the pilot group. Pressure to get a contract before peak. We will never have a better opportunity to get what we deserve now. I get the impression it's just like the last contract. I'm tired......lets put this behind us.......we''ll get them on the next one....NMB won't let us do anything...etc. etc. I've been here 19 years and we're still not back to the work rules we had back then. Our pays raises have amounted to 1 1/2-3% a year since 1988. It has not changed. We have gotten a few bones here and there but thats about it. Just because the passenger carriers have taken in the shorts doesn't mean we should be satified with a mediocre contract at best. Fred Smith was not about to compare us with the passenger boys when they were getting the $300hr pay rates for widebody crews. Now it seems our own leadership is.
I still haven't figured out if this a 4 year dear, 3 1/2 year deal or a 3 year deal. The trip rig goes to 3.75 to 1 at DOS plus 1. Why? Because of the software? What a crock. Company had the 4 to 1 rig up and running the following bid month. All those hub turn pairings turned into TAFB trips over night. And we're giving them a year so they can change all those pairings back to the way they were and tweak the living daylight out of them?! Looking at the chart in the back of the T.A. 70% of the stuff there is not implemented until the middle of 07. I wonder if UPS's contract was this disjointed.
The only people who really benifit from this T.A. are the International flyers and the retired who have a medical condition. Some people think the 10 pages of retiree health care benefits are engraved in stone and will never have to be addressed again. We may not address it but I will put my bonus on the table that the company will on the next go around. I'm sure I will never see the T.A. retired benefits section the way it is written by the time I retire. How much money did we give up now to benefit a small few for the next 4 years. The only way health care will get changed is if the government gets of their duff.
I suspect Fred will laugh again if this T.A. passes. He knows we have 98% dues paying members but he also knows we, as a whole, are a bunch of milk toast pilots that won't ever strike.