Someone needs to write a quick OZ-US-OZ dictionary. Roster = Schedule, and so on.

As long as the Aussies stay out of the training department, I don't think anyone really cares that much. So far all my internal recs have been hired. If that changes, I might change my mind.

 

And while we're fine tuning our vocabulary, I'd like to offer this correction in the spirit of "mentoring" people who are new to the screwed up way we arrive at legally binding documents like our "contract".

The contract was never ratified. It could have been! But the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars and six years fighting us to explicitly avoid ratification.

Ratification happens after the document passes a vote by the union membership. Theoretically, the company and union negotiate until reaching a "tentative agreement" (TA). The TA is then put out for a vote. The vote either fails or passes. If the vote passes then the document is ratified.

That's not what happens in real life at Atlas Air. Historically, at Atlas Air, the company buys another operation which triggers a clause in the contract which said the two parties will negotiate for 9 months and then all remaining sections go to a "independent" (ha!) 3rd party arbitrator. Naturally, only the biggest and most important sections would be left remaining.

The arbitrator would then produce a document, bless it, and impose it on the union membership for a length of time to be determined only by him.

Now, as alluded to by Elevation, we may have new owners (deal remains to be done). So, who knows? Maybe business will be done differently in the future.

But that's a short course in the history of labor relations at Atlas Air for anyone who is interested.

 

Agreed.

Agreed.

 

Please don't mistake my distain for the E3 program and how it is applied at Atlas for any distain for Australian pilots. Once you're here, you're one of us. The grumblings on the line are totally directed at the company and the program. There is no animosity whatsoever towards the guys (and girls?) that are on line. I certainly don't blame anyone personally for pursing their best possible situation.

 

While I agree with your post, I do take issue with the Qantas flying making it appropriate. We're an ACMI carrier -- we fly for companies from China, Japan, Germany etc etc etc. By that reasoning, we should be opening hiring worldwide.

The company received approximately 280 RSVP's for a single roadshow. Would like to know how many CJO's came from those 280.

 

The 280 were simply screened and some have entered the hiring process. There were no CJOs handed out during the road show. It takes two to three months to process an E3 candidate and the numbers joining has not increased dramatically over the last several months.

 

I want to start by saying that I no longer work for Atlas but having so feel I have the right to respond to notthesame. There is so much wrong with the post I am not sure where to begin but here goes. There are many reasons a pilot may go ex-patriot. In my case it was either get furloughed at TWA or take a chance for a position with SAUDIA with whom they had a contact. The post usually went senior but with the situation at TWA most stayed to protect their positions with the company, I was really lucky to secure time in the Kingdom, With the end of the contract I decided to stay in the Kingdom for personal reasons. Then along came Japan that was looking to expand their TOA Domestic Airline Operation, which later became Japan Air System. To say the least we were not welcomed and the union made it plain by failing 70% of us. We were to be on the contract for 5 years, I stayed 14 because I really loved Japan and the domestic flying, the wife loved Japan, the union finally came around, and the pay was great. As with anything good it had to end and there I was at Polar. Finally got too old and moved on.
Here is the bottom line, don't discourage the Aussies for wanting to come to Atlas on an E3 visa. They may have many reasons, as I had, but one of them is not to take your jobs. Posts like the ones I am seeing can only create a bad atmosphere in the cockpit. Personally I really like the Aussies and their brand of humor and I am sure they are working hard to make a good impression with the "Yanks". They are good people and I am sure good pilots so just get on with it and the international flavor. Who knows, you just might learn something. Just don't get into a game of rugby with them unless you enjoy hurt.

 

Eloquent post thank you. I believe that most Aussies are trying to make a valuable contribution to the company but also agree worth dera, gotta stay out of training. We complicate flying so much that it stops being fun

 

There is only one word I need to address in your entire post: contract. You took a contract. Nobody is offering contracts here. There is no contact renewal. You did what was best for you and as i've said repeatedly I have no animosity towards the pilots themselves. The issue I have is this is just another tactic the company is using to artificially keep pay down, and they are abusing a temporary visa program to do it.

I'll ask again: Do you support US airline seniority lists being opened up to ALL pilots, regardless of nationality? And if so, what do you think it will do to our pay?

FedEx isn't sponsoring visas. Delta isn't sponsoring visas. Skywest, Spirit and Atlas are. What does that tell you?

 

notthesame , while your argument might hold some water were it not for the absolute shortage of crew in the market. From what I can tell aussies are making little to no difference in the current environment. I'm seeing people with the bare minimum 1500 hours in class, sometimes only single engine turbo prop time getting onto the widebody fleets, including people with no jet time making it onto the 74.

Also, Australia is not a cheap country to live, so the Aussies are not akin to cheap labour group happy with sub par wages and conditions because whatever they earn here is a kings ransom in their home country.

Time will tell what happens with other operators and the E-3, or any other visa for that matter because if things keep on going as they are the conversation will be very different further down the track. That is of course of there isn't a complete swing in the market again!

What I will be interested in seeing is when some pilots cotton on to the fact that if their spouse was on an E-3 instead of them, there would be absolutely nothing stopping them from applying to any of the majors as the E-3S (or is it E-3D?) visa isn't tied to an employer and provides full working rights