Originally Posted by
SoCalGuy
While boring holes over the Amazon last week, one of the FA's came up to talk about the "us v them" on the contract hot buttons.
I would have guessed the same thing you hit on as far as the 'surplus', but according to the CAL FA, the UAL FA's have a monthly "cap" they can fly. At CAL, there is no 'cap'. There are some (not uncommon actually) FA's pinning up 120+ hrs a month with trading & picking up of OT. With UA's lower 'cap' (82-85 hrs??)/rules on that topic, it supposedly would require a greater staffing to fly the same amount of block hour (and all things being equal). The other hot button is that UA's FAs have a 'rotating reserve' system (similar to AA) where no matter the seniority, every other (or every few months??) month an FA still sits a month of reserve....not so at CAL. Who knows, if the UA system on this topic is adopted, it just may get rid of a few of the CAL 'antiques' in the FA ranks.
Either way.....we have our own task at hand. Get the Pilot Group JCBA that we deserve to make up for the 'severely lacking' CBA's that presently reside under our 'pre-merger' lives.
I am not sure I understand how it would result in needing more flight attendants unless we grow exponentially. I routinely fly with CAL FAs who do 140-160/mo which they like. My understanding is that CAL FAs also have a higher minimum amount they must fly compared to UA FAs. There are hundreds of senior FAs at UA who hardly ever fly. Knowing how CAL pushes productivity, do you think that Smizek would let a contract be TA'd if it allowed all these senior people to sit around on the books and not actually work? Something tells me that the combined group is overstaffed in theory, but any work-rule changes would probably make quite a few FAs retire if they are forced to work more.
In addition, many UA FAs would like to work more given their dismal pay and would like to get rid of the cap.