Originally Posted by
Avroman
Mesaba can junior man but then you are entitled to a "comp day" basically, you get, with agreement of scheduling, to then drop a day on the front or back of a stretch of days.
I would personally say that there should not be ANY forced JM. If you don't have enough people, recall the furloughs or hire. I don't care if they can call to ask but there should be NO penalty for saying nope not interested.
I want to see, as far as the company/scheduling is concerned 12 days is the minimum, period. If I choose to drop down, fine. And yes once my schedule is published, the off days are OFF. No floating off days to bail them out for poor staffing or a lousy planning department.
Yes currently anyone with an 11 day off line is limited to only picking up a day trip. The problem is at least on the jet, there are no worthwhile day trips and no way to cherrypick anything off a longer pairing because almost everything leaves the base first leg day one and doesn't come back til last leg day four. Day trips scheduling creates end up with deadheads (that only pay 50% so they still don't usually go over min day, but that's another fight.)
In the end we are in the same boat as far as days off- you cannot be forced to fly in any of them after your bid is out. The concern is the min day off (you want 12, what is in negotiations is 11). The issue still remains in what you are "allowed" to work voluntarily. By what I am reading from you the idea of 12 min and ability to work down to 10 with a pickup (to include the overnight- I understand what you are saying about day trips being a hard find). Mesaba has limits on what you can pick up, PCL does not. That is the difference here.