Originally Posted by
golfandfly
CaptainGator,
I agree with you 100%. Great story about BC, not sure why he thought he could get away with it. Glad he got to enjoy the evening with himself. If is a guy is a nonmember that pays dues, I've got no problem with that. The non dues payer is a leach that has no problem with us paying his way. About a month or so ago there was a nonunion member going to Aghanistan and needed a vacation swap. I am a military person myself and have spent some time in that area. Also, it would have been a beneficial swap for me as well. Although I appreciate his service, I don't appreciate the fact that he has decided to take a free ride while his coworkers pay. No vacation swap for me.
You are right, these DP folks aren't helping out the team. I generally regard these folks much like a nonmember or scab. Sure, that is harsh, but they do have something in common. Their short term personal agenda effects our long term quality of life. If I were a commuter, I would particularly take notice of this month's DP design. If your line was built full of these pairings, you couldn't turn and would spend alot of time in Memphis (and I know how painful that is for some). This pairing design could be used on practically every west coast trip. It is hard to build a decent line when you need a day of rest between pairings.
I know some guys don't realize they are flying a DP. We get bombarded with union and company emails, FCIFs, etc. I tend to look at the type of trip, and it easy to determine which trips are disputed. Still, ignorance is no excuse.
I realize the union does not want to harrass DP fliers because it may be seen as an illegal job action or member coersion. I think they should send the usual email and display pairing number/date and the name of the pilot that flew it (obviously not a reserve guy that had no choice). Maybe more people would stop flying them if they were humiliated and left sitting in the corner by himself. If we refuse to do anything about it, we should simply stop the process since it doesn't work anyway. Let's just let the company schedule by hard parameters only. It just divides us more to continue our current process.
This is the crux of the entire DP issue. We need to scrap this process and start over with hard parameters.
This has been debated over and over in the past, and the truth hasn't changed. The current process is broken, does not have the support of the membership, and needs to be fixed by ALPA. No way around it.
No, I do not fly DPs, I don't block my calendar and I am a member. I don't blame the SIG (even when it was fully operational), I blame the membership, but be that as it may the current process is doing more damage than good.
This single quote (highlighted above) should be a thread unto itself.
As a side note, check out some of those West Coast DPs. The company is having to split them up and deadhead pilots back and forth due to the 8 in 24 issue, even says so right in the trip notes. Wonder how much we're wasting in DH tickets to allow schedules to destroy the bidpack with these ridiculous pairings. Talk about spending a dollar to save a dime.