Originally Posted by
Lambourne
I don't know where you get the "too good to fly the RJ's". At UA the majority of pilots wanted the RJ's on our property. We had a rouge MEC Chairman (Mike Glawe) that made the pitch to the MEC that the company could either buy RJ's or 400's but not both. The MEC voted to add the widebodies and allow RJ's. This was letting the camel in the tent. I think at the time of the agreement we had 57 400's. The fleet now stands at 26, that doesn't count all the 737's, 727's that are no longer flying our colors either. The MEC Chairman during our bankruptcy (Paul Whiteford) signed the 70 seat deal behind the backs of the entire MEC. At no point did I or the remaining UAL pilots get to vote on whether or not we got to fly the RJ's.
What became of this murders row of MEC chairman? How did they atone for their actions toward the pilots they hurt so much? They along with a 400 Captain by the name of Jerry Gallud sued ALPA for additional funds from our BK exit agreement. That is right these guys are such good people they sued and settled for 4 million bucks. Read it and weep here:
FindACase™ | Mansfield v. Air Line Pilots Association International These guys are pariahs and outcast, deservedly so.
You guys like to make the argument that we think we are too good to fly those jets. Nothing could be farther from the truth and it seems that it is used as an excuse to stroke your own ego. Grow up and realize that if those jobs are all mainline it benefits everyone.
L
Thanks for the info. I will admit that I have not done a lot of research on this issue. The one thing I know is that well before my time at the regionals started the RJ somehow made it out of the hands of mainline pilots. I also know that this let the RJs get out of control to the point were a majority (51 or 52%) of domestic flying is now done by a RJ. Years ago a co-worker of mine was hoping that we would get 70 seat jets (we only had T-Props) and I told him he was stupid. That the 70 seat jets belong at mainline so that we can get out of the regionals and onto mainline...he looked at me like I had 3 heads...
I don't want spend a decade in the regionals, but that date is closely approaching. I understand that the only way that the industry will have any hope is for the mainline guys to take a stand and scope RJs back in. It will be best for everyone. I think the work rules (mainly cba duty limits and number of min days off) and staffing issues alone would minimize the number of furloughs that would happen, compared to adding more RJs to the regionals.
I also hope that the UAL/CAL guys realize that the industry is counting on them to stand up and keep the CAL scope or better.