TS et al,

Being a Delta guy myself, I know exactly what you are saying in regards to the overtime flying when there are furloughs. Fortunately all our guys gone now are recall bypasses so, as you said, we do not have a dog in this fight at this time.

I think the only way it would work for us is to have the entire senority list on the same page and not answering their phones for any overtime flying whether it be whiteslip, yellowslip, greenslip or inverse assignment. Some one is going to get the trip unless NO ONE answers their phone! This is the key. If we do not have 100 percent cooperation throughout the senority list.....senority rights to the premium pay flying will be abrogated. Being semi cynical, with 12,000+ guys, this is going to be next to impossible.

The problem no one has mentioned is that, during contract negotiations, the RLA has a "status quo" segment to it. We at Delta found this out the hard way a few years ago when the company sued for and received an injunction against the union for violating the "status quo" (the union/individuals trying to influence guys to NOT bid over/open time) during negotiations. This is a very slippery slope and led to the sign in agreement on the DALPA forum.

All of our contracts are different, you look at your own and decide on the proper course of action. That course may lead in different directions based on what YOUR contract has in it.

Any way I just thought I'd throw in my two cents worth and back up my compadre!

Denny