New hire pay is $200 a week and they put you up in a hotel while you're in training. Once you pass your checkride you get full pay. Upgrades are 2-3 years. You need 3000 hours (insurance mins.) or 3500 if you have no time in the airplane. You are trained in Memphis, and you do get to bid for any of the three bases. That doesn't mean you will get it though.

Minimum days off are 10 while on reserve. It is usually 5 on, 2 off, 5 on, 3 off and so on. You can trade days to get 4 off in a row. I've done it. Detroit is really the only hub I know off that uses airport ready reserve, and I'm not sure that it is used that often. Otherwise, all of your reserve is home reserve with a 90 min. call out.

Crews are great, schelduling and management suck. Contract is not done, and with Mesaba just reaching a TA I think it's not going to be done for a while. Management is going to want to pit us against Mesaba. Management has consistently told us that they want us to be the lowest bidder out there. We've said there is no way in hell we're taking any contract that lowers the standards.

I flew with the MEC chairman the other day and was talking to him about this stuff. He flat out told management and me that the only way that management is getting a crappy contract with us is if they go into bankruptcy and shove it up his ass. Otherwise he won't sign it. And yes, that was a direct quote.

Hope this helps.