And ultimately making less money because we have to fly smaller or fewer legs? When I am away from home, I want to be as efficient as possible, making money. Your dream for a shorter duty day doesn't fit well with our operation. I know you cannot wrap your head around that. Are you seriously suggesting that our new contract is a cause for whipsawing the other ACMI carriers? Sorry, you can't say that when we have the best contract in the ACMI world.

 

Speaking of your contract did you guys get good benefits as far as health insurance??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

The best in the free or oppressed worlds

 

All... Just can't keep reading without throwing in my 2 cents' again...

Somehow this thread got hijacked to be an editorial about duty days (which, I admit, I helped). But, the real issue here is that DW used his position to attempt to force K4 pilots to a strike. He wanted us to be the sacrificial lamb in the quest to get DHL to become interested enough in the collective labor strife to pressure our respective employers to do something. No real collateral damage, since, what the hell, no Atlas pilots get hurt by the plan.

Every time the negotiating committee thought there was a deal, DW threw in another show stopper, hoping to force his end game. We were pawns in a grand plan that was definitely not designed to benefit the pilots of K4.

The grand plan cost us at least a year of working on an old and outdated contract. At the beginning, the company was stalling. Until, they had the epiphany that they were losing pilots faster than they could be replaced. They then started bargaining in earnest with a goal of a contract that would stop the hemorrhaging. K4 pilots could have had a big change in their pocketbook and QOL much earlier without DW's meddling.

And, we're ****ed. It's that simple...

 

^^^^^^^^^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj0bwLBckkI

 

From some of the previous posts, it gets brought up that 18 hour duty days would not fit with the K4 operation.

Several of the ACMI's are flying to the same sandbox and/or hostile destinations. Is K4 doing something different from the rest of us?

 

They seem to think it's impossible to fly from Europe, pit stop in some God forsaken military outpost, then continue on to eastern Asia in less than 30 hours.



Major concerns about over-nighting in God forsaken hotels.

Sounds like some of them would be happier at an ALPA regional.

 

Yeah they are making more money , spending more time at home , not having their income imputed, want some more examples ?

 

In my near 10 years with K4 I have only committed, two 30hr duty days. And those days were as a double crew, but some act as if we are trying to achieve a 30hr day as a single crew. There are many reasons for a 30hr duty day here. But we are not going for a 30hr duty day, the company agreed to 24hr and DW wants 18. We at K4 still fly many ad-hoc trips, and by dropping down to a 18hr duty day would not allow our company the flexibility it needs to serve the customer. So for this reason and many others, we want to make sure the company has the necessary competitive edge it needs to remain very profitable. This is a win/win.

 

Let’s be honest for a moment and agree Kalitta is nowhere near the size of Atlas. As such we do not have the aircraft, the crews, nor do we have the command and control structure an airline the size of Atlas does. So given this fact, what works for Atlas does not work for Kalitta, it’s as simple as that. This is not a race to the bottom, this is about doing what works for our situation. The only similarities we share is that we are both supplemental carriers, and at the present time happen to be in the same union.

Currently we both operate aircraft within the DHL system, but we need to understand that what might be good for Atlas is not necessarily good for Kalitta. Atlas is a competitor not an ally, this was proven by the manner in which we were treated by DW and the Teamsters. We were being used as the sacrificial lamb, and our demise would have been a gain for our competitor. There are approximately 400 pilots at K4, if everyone of us voted to replace DW, we would not even put a dent in defeating him. Think about this for a moment, in just three short years we will once again be negotiating. Do you really want a union that did everything to circumvent our negotiations to represent us? I do not feel this is in our best interest and I am willing to vote accordingly.