You obviously have misread my posts in this thread and others. My glass is 100% full. I'm thrilled that we have achieved a TA that will be voted on soon. I'm thrilled that the union finally pulled together and made the final push towards a better life for all of us, and for the airline pilot profession as a whole. Touchdown!
What your also a little confused on, is the NMFC - which is partly poorly named and more or less has two meanings. The real meaning of the NMFC was back in the 80's and 90's when it was all jetstreams and Saabs flying throughout MS. That slang term apparently morphed into what is more properly refered to as the Pinnacle Wolfpack as the Memphis guys call them or the Memphis 7 as the Detroit guys call them.
The Pinnacle Wolfpack or Memphis 7 (I'm sure you know very well who these 7 checkairmen are) are the ones who went nutso when TA1 failed. They were the ones shouting and yelling at the Union roadshows, demanding this, demanding that, and all for personal selfish short-term gains. They ALSO.....ALSO (twice for clarifaction)....ALSO (third for impact).....are the same 7 guys who are blood thirsty after YOU! I heard two of them talking in the crewroom last week about them trying to get you out of there. Like everyone else, I'd love to attempt to knock some sense into them, but I get paired with these guys regularly on trips, much like you do and with my luck, I would have my next PC with one of them. And for the record, I applaude your contributions to our Union and consider them to be highly valueable. Everyone appreciated your impressive graphs you posted during the voting of TA1. The WolfPack is after you because you essentially weren't in favor of TA1.
Why was TA1 such a big deal to these folks? Incase you haven't realized, these guys wanted a sub-par contract that would keep a high turnover rate to enable them to endlessly give IOE at 125% hourly payrates, keep them in the sims on 100 hour guarantee buyouts (where they could pickup things and double-dip another 50-60 hours, and afford them the opportunies to credit upward of 150-160 hours a month from all the constant training events. TA1 equaled a fortune to these guys. Their 30,000-40,000 dollar signing bonuses were chump change compared to their 150 hour months. Think about it. 150hrs X 12 months = 1,800 credit hours a year. Multiply that at 75-90 dollars an hour and do the math. The wolfpack was afraid and is still afraid that Pinnacle may turn into an American Eagle or Express Jet where people don't want to leave because the pay and quality of life is so good. The Wolfpack's only chance at a salary near a major airline pilots salary is to have a high turnover ratio which gives them the high credit. They know they wont ever be able to move on to a major airline because they've been rejected by all of them for no college degree, accident on their record or having a dead-fish personality.
Your different, you have a college degree. Your a well educated man who understands business. These guys aren't. They're self proclaimed geniuses, but too short sighted to see longterm gains through a respectable work agreement.
I really hope you can stay in the Union without (sigh)another(sigh) "Recall" of one of our leaders. You've done well. Please don't misread what I wrote above. Good job by assissting the final touchdown for a great contract. Look at the above votes on this thread and see that virtually everyone is in favor of TA2. Good job!!
I'm just laughing, because, I know these fools are realizing that their arrogance back during the voting of TA1 is being laughed at by me, you and many many others. I wonder if they'll man up to admiting they were wrong.
Let's all be honest here. We've got some crazy politics at this airline, and combined with a bunch of union recalls over the past year have caused alot of bad blood. I came here just before the age 65 rule passed. I really honestly thought I'd be a captain relatively soon and get through the unliveable FO wages. But, then our Union sued our company when I was going to get a payraise....then some captains got displaced back to FO...and on and on....Finally!!! - now I can get to a liveable wage with the new TA.
The glass is filled up and were all ready to moving on towards a better life which TA2 will provide us.......it's about dang time.
Last edited by Pinchanickled; 01-01-2011 at 08:23 PM.