ToeJam,
Every MEF event should really be covered by a Union pilot. Your example of MIA or ANC is poor... in that a Union pilot should have been scheduled for Hot Standby duty during each of the departure windows. That would allow for all of the Customer protection you speak of, and protect the customer.
If the Reserve coverage is not sufficient, then there are not enough reserves.
If you need last minute coverage, then there were not enough Hot Standby pilots on duty.
If there were only a single MEF event per month, there would not be an issue. But that is not the case. There are weekly several MEF events, and sometimes Daily MEF events.
How often can Management Emergency Flying events happen, and still constitute an Emergency?
Our very profitable company just asked the rank and file to "pass the hat" or deal with a furlough. The company wants to reduce cost. The management pilots COST A LOT. Why are there so many? Any reasonable person running a company, and trying to cut costs would look to the High Dollar option for reduction, instead of the low dollar "passing the hat options" or bottom Union pilots (lowest paid in the company).
Freig8t.
Originally Posted by
ToeJam Football
The Myth of Super Reserve, Mgr Integration and other Tawdry Tales
This is an effort to try and shed some factual light on the above issues and in so doing, dispel some of the disinformation out there.
Management Pilots as Super Reserve
There has been a lot of verbiage on APC, the Flight Times etc on the subject of Management pilots acting as super reserves. Below is a brief recap of Management flying.
Management Flying is approved by the IPA.
The Agreement (contract) Article 13 specifies and approves the following classifications of Management flying as well as the required reports to the IPA from such flying. Anyone that voted for the contract approved of the Management flying in Article 13. For black helicopter fans, there are no secrets as to how much flying is being done. The IPA can produce dates, flight numbers, hours flown and Management crewmembers doing the flying. Nor is the number of Management pilots a secret. The Flight Ops web page lists Org Charts on the left side. All Admin/Mgmt people are listed. With enough fingers and toes, anyone should be able to quickly add up the number.
Peak Flying hours are negotiated between UPS and the IPA. UPS can assign flying to Mgmt Captains without first offering the flying to the IPA. There is a ceiling on the numbers of hours UPS is allowed. This flying is done on UPS aircraft, obviously, rather than using leased carriers thereby providing jobs for union mechanics, union schedulers, union dispatchers etc. This also has the effect of keeping more money ‘in house’ providing more at the bottom line for dividends for stockholders – managers, IPA pilots and anyone else owning a small piece of Brown.
Proficiency Flying is flying required by the FAA for Check Airman and Instructors to maintain qualifications . These Regs apply to IPA instructors also. This flying is done by displacement. On a humorous note, most Management pilots can tell stories of being called by IPA members asking to be displaced since as work schedule is interfering with their personal life. No one seems to mind too much staying home from a two week trip –paid of course!
Management Emergency Flying (MEF) as required to cover trips due to insufficient Reserve Coverage or from last minute sick calls, no shows etc. where a reserve callout will not allow for a timely departure on critical flights. There is not nearly as much MEF as conventional wisdom would hold. The average Management pilot working in the Training Center might be called every 12 to 18 months and typically for one or two legs. The Flight Standards/ACP folks obviously fly more due to their schedule availability. Some of this is due to failed line checks with the ACP being required to take the position of the crewmember having a bad day. The other group are the domicile ACPs (ANC,PHL,ONT,MIA). They tend to do much of the last minute call-outs – ANC in particular due to the inability of the company to recover from a late sick call or no show.
Everyone in both management and the IPA should thank their lucky stars every time there is an MEF event. If there were no MEF call, an a/c with customer’s packages would not fly. On that flight might be a contract that must be signed by a certain date or a small business will go under, or parts for a broken piece of machinery that workers are off work waiting for. Those items are the lifeblood of someone’s business. Case in point – in MIA in the last month or so, a Capt no-show’d a flight. It was a Sunday, no reserve coverage and no takers on JA. A Management Captain gave up his Sunday (with family plans I would presume) to get that flight to the destination. Result was happy customers whose business UPS will keep. Say no one took the flight and multiply that no-show times 12 or so and enough customers will head for FedEx that UPS will come to the IPA for another 50 jobs or savings in-lieu thereof.
Management Integration
Whether this is a good, bad or ugly idea is up to you. Understanding how the company thinks and functions is helpful. UPS is a 102 year old company that takes almost as much pride in the corporate culture as in profitability. By definition some things are the responsibility of Management – budgeting & planning, hiring & firing, and any sort of evaluation. The idea that a union member would give another union member an evaluation (checkride) is antithetical. It is hard wired into the organization. That doesn’t mean that the courts couldn’t make it happen, but to expect UPS to voluntarily cross that line is simply not realistic - expect a battle.
There is also outrage that UPS could dare to run the business that way. By golly, no other airline runs that *(^#%# way. That is correct – and it is precisely because UPS IS different that many of use chose to come here. A different business model but a slow steady climb rather than the boom and bust of pax carriers, remember? If the slow steady climb isn’t currently working for us, you can’t blame the company for the wheels falling off the economy or the age 65 change. They are managing the best they can for the future. The bottom line is the people at the top making decisions chose to be management employees and have made the sacrifices to get them to where they are. They, by definition, get to make those decisions. Those decisions are endorsed by the Board of Directors as well. UPS is a for-profit publically traded company and is answerable only to the shareholders, whether or not anyone wants to admit it.
] Tawdry Tales
Sorry - a teaser! You’ll need to look somewhere else I’m afraid!
Fire Away