Hey OmniSlash, I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone I've flown with that thinks I don't like the company. I actually think ZW is a great place to work, with great people, and a good culture. I think everyone has reflected on their career choices the last few months, and I can say that I don't think I would go to any other airline if I could make my choice again. I'm happy here at ZW. I think they treat us well.

However, I do think the Union that represents us is ineffective. Further, based on emails I've seen and conversations I've had regarding the bonus, I would say they are misleading. When this whole bonus process started, they spread misinformation to many of the pilots effected. Whether they intentionally did this or accidentally did this is open for debate/interpretation. But they had the information available to them, because I personally provided it to them--but they chose to not disperse this information internally, not to study the information provided, or to play stupid and plead ignorance. If you want me to provide more information on this, feel free to PM me.

You mention that I am not happy with the processes used to address the issues. This is inaccurate. I am happy with the grievance process, but it is not being followed. I am unhappy that there is no process being used as of now. Our grievance is in limbo with no definitive timeline on getting a resolution. I talked to an FO the other day who said he needs the bonus money in order to keep his kid in the same school. Not knowing when there will be a solution is a disservice to the pilot group.

You mention that they are not meeting because they are working on other projects. I think that is fair. I tried to pull up the original email that said they were suspending the timeline to get more context, but I couldn't find it. If anyone can provide that Pay Day Hotline date that would be great. However, all of the emails regarding furlough mitigation are vague at best. They provide no details or offers made/declined from either the company or the union. I hope they can find solutions, but most companies have announced agreements by this point but ARWMEC has not. Further, they have made it clear there will be zero pay concessions for pilots who stay on property, which makes negotiations quite quick/easy.

As for my pay cuts comment above... I just didn't want someone to say "Oh you can take a SAH line and not have to travel."

I agree that these things take time. I'm just happy to still have a job as of now. But when I hear ALPA members bragging about how scheduling let them swap one leg with another ALPA member so that they can keep captain pay, I get frustrated. When I see ALPA reps say they don't have certain documents and then see them sending that document a month prior, I get frustrated. When I see the suspension of a process that we voted on and approved as the pilot group, I get frustrated. Can there be delays on these things? Sure. But it needs to be more defined than "We'll get to it later".

 

That’s just smart use of the contract that anyone is able to do.

Regarding a timeline; There is no firm timeline for the grievance process because all the stuff the company wants to fight goes in front of an arbitrator, and with limited availability it can take an excessively long time to find a date that works for all three parties.

 

This is obviously your first grievance. I remember being frustrated with the process when I didn't understand it either. Unfortunately, the rules that govern how unions can fight these cases are not really in favor of work groups. I don't understand how you can say that the process isn't being followed when the documentation of each step of the case was provided in the email. The process takes time and it's unfortunate that this case didn't reach a quick resolution in your favor but that is how it goes sometimes. I have had some of my own issues resolved quickly but have had some that take a while to go through the whole process. That doesn't mean that the Union is ineffective though. We have had times in the past where management and the union didn't work well together. We had many more issues and it took a lot longer to get a resolution - favorable or not. I like hearing that they are working together. I have friends at other airlines that have bad relationships between the union and management and that makes it difficult to get anything done.

I'm not sure what misinformation you say the union is spreading but I talk to the reps quite often and get a straight answer on any of my questions and I don't get the feeling that they are just sitting around purposely delaying getting our issues addressed. They have also gone in print on many issues recently giving us more insight into what is going on. Honestly, I have seen misinformation in your posts on here and not what they put out to us. You may not like the information that is presented but you do us all a disservice by trying to undermine the work that is being done for us and trying to make false generalizations and conclusions. If you think that all the details of every negotiation are supposed to be made public and in real time, you are mistaken. That's not how it works and nothing would ever get accomplished.

I truly hope that you and the rest of the pilots that are owed money get paid quickly. I also hope that the union and the company continue to prioritize getting us through this pandemic. I understand your frustration but when you turn that to divisiveness, you hurt us all.

 

^^^This right here. Many pilots adjust their schedule for various reasons and those adjustments are available to any pilot on property. Implying that the union is doing something wrong by this is misleading and another attempt to divide us-obviously stemming from his anger that his bonus wasn't paid.

 

Yes, I agree with this statement and understand that COVID will cause delays and a backlog. But based on ALPA emails it sounds like there are no plans to meet to resolve these issues. I'm not expecting a solution overnight, but I do expect there to be constant progress.

Maybe a solution would be: "we're not going to meet to resolve COVID related issues for the next 6 months (or however long), but we are willing to meet twice as often after 6 months to reduce the backlog." There just isn't a plan in place as of now and the company can capitalize on that. I don't think that's unreasonable.

 

Thats not the vibe I got from this member. You can check the schedules of these two individuals and see that scheduling allowed one to drop the first leg of their trip (MKE-ORD) and then get right back into it their trip. Maybe it was for actual operational/commute reasons, but that's not the context he provided.

Two other captains who were downgraded were talking about their pay reduction and then this guy hopped in the conversation and was basically bragging about how "scheduling let him." I didn't even put the pieces together until the captain started venting about it after the individual left.

 

Also, OmniSplash, would you want to have a phone call? I'm not trying to provide misinformation and if you see misinformation in my posts, please call it out--but specifics. I would like to get your perspective on this a bit more and give you a bit more details that I would rather not post publicly on here.

If you wanna talk, send me a PM.

 

That’s contractual. Anyone else can do it. Swaps are not to be denied as long as you’re not generating extra credit out of it (IE person 1 takes person 2’s MKE-ORD leg but person 1 doesn’t waive min day). The other two sad but contractually ignorant captains could find a friend and get the exact same thing approved. It doesn’t have to be for commute/operational reasons.

 

Oops. Sorry if I didn't provide enough context. That was the whole purpose of this swap. The member was saying "I get to keep my captain pay for an extra 30 days now because I was able to pick up one single leg that the other union member was allowed to drop." To be honest, I'm not very familiar with how the pay situation has worked with downgrades, but it sounds like if you fly a leg as captain, you get to keep it for another 30 days, which is what this member was bragging about.

 

It sounded to me like they have not stopped meeting, but that there is a bit of leniency in not meeting exact deadlines with everything going on. Case in point - the bonus grievance