Well, no it isn't. Sick leave usage is counted towards the total cost of the contract. The cost of sick leave necessarily reduces benefits that could be obtained in other parts of the contract. If you use your sick leave for personal reasons, and not just when you are sick, then you are taking away from your fellow pilots the ability to obtain contract improvements in other areas. Sick leave is for when you are sick, it is not to use as you see fit. Pilots that abuse sick leave and take more than their share, are not taking from the company, they are taking from their fellow pilots that do the right thing. You can self justify that as much as you want, but the fact is by taking more for yourself, there is less left for the rest of the pilots.

I see that Carl seems to justify the BOB as a way to justify his "hard line grow a set" mentality. The one thing he doesn't mention is that at Delta, we never lost block or better, we always had 100% pay for deadheads, and we never lost premium pay. Maybe other ways of doing business can be more advantageous than the "grow a pair" mentality. Go look at the APA thread from one of their BOD members and you see that the APA board of directors has lost all confidence in "Grow A Pair Lloyd Hill" and his hard liners. Their lack of production has led them to want to adopt a little more of our strategy. Looks like UAL is going the same way. Go figure.