Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
Leinelodge, your thinking boggles my mind. Why wouldn't we want our company to be efficient? And why in the world would you want more pilots? (Assuming the same amount of flying) If the flying stays constant and we keep bringing on more people, that means less money in our pockets and less money the company makes (again, profit sharing less money in my pocket -- company not healthy long term). When I'm at work, I would rather fly fly fly and make my trips more productive; therefore, getting my monthly hours in the shortest number of days which translates into more days off. In other words, maximize the paycheck, maximize the days off.
I think we're more alike than you may realize. Of course we all want the part I bolded above. The issue I have is with your reference to "we" needing to get more efficient. I'm guessing by your screenname that you're prior military so you may not have the ingrained level of work rule fatigue that us RJ guys have. You're more mission oriented, etc which is great. I respectfully disagree with you though that it is up to the pilot group to figure this out.
Many regionals have the ability to fly their guys up to FAR block limits, and do. They run much leaner than we do. I don't want to go there again. There is a balance between having a ton of pilots just to pad the seniority list, and flying to the redline.
Believe me, I do not want to strangle the golden goose. I do, however, think it is management's job to manage and our job to get the best deal we can out of them. You don't start out buying a used car by worrying about how it will impact the other guy financially - that's his business and he WILL act in his own best interest. The same with us negotiating with the company. We should ask for a little more than we want, and the company will negotiate us down a little towards something that is acceptable to them.
When you say things like "we" need to become more efficient, you are managing the pilot group's expectations downwards. I admire your dedication to the company, and I want us to do well too, but please don't do management's job for them