DC-10 Excess Bid
 

TO: All Flight Crew Members

SUBJECT: Posting 07-02

As communicated in prior postings, the Company is making progress in
achieving its goal of converting DC10s to MD10s. By the end of FY09
(May 2009), it is expected that the operating fleet of DC10s will be
approximately five to six aircraft. By the end of FY10 (May 2010), the
plan reflects no DC10s operating in the FedEx system. Consequently, we
find ourselves in a position where it is necessary to post an excess bid
for 40 (forty) DC10 Captains, 40 (forty) DC10 first officers and 60
(sixty) DC10 second officers. The posting is open for bidding as of
Monday, July 9 and will close at 1400z on Monday, July 23. There will be
one practice bid on Thursday, July 19. Pilots who bid off the aircraft
will be trained in seniority order starting with the most senior pilot.
Note the initial training date could be as early as August. Any pilot who
voluntarily bids off the aircraft shall be considered to be “bidding-to-
relieve the excess” if they are within the required number of excessed
positions for their seat. If an insufficient number of pilots bid to
relieve the excess, pilots will be excessed from their respective seat in
reverse seniority order. Please review the 07-02 Q&A for bidding examples.

Fleet Plan
Date 727 757 Airbus DC10* MD10 MD11
JUL 07 94 - 122 19 58 58
MAY 08 90 3 129 13 66 58
MAY 09 78 16 137 6 73 58

*DC10 excludes aircraft removed from service for MD10 modification.

Relocation
A pilot who is excessed or bids to relieve an excess is eligible for
relocation package #1, in accordance with Section 6, Relocation, as
contained in the CBA. For specific questions not addressed in the
Relocation portion of the Q&A, please contact Steve Hanks at
[email protected] or 901-224-5105.

Future Postings and New Hires
We anticipate the next vacancy posting to open in August, 2007 and remain
open for forty-five (45) days. That bid will include the closing of the
Airbus domicile in Subic Bay, the opening of the 757 domiciles in both
Memphis and Paris and the establishment of an Airbus domicile in Hong
Kong. New pilot hiring is expected to be minimal.

Questions and Answers
A “Q&A” document has been posted on pilot.fedex.com to give you as much
information as possible to help you decide how to bid on this posting.
There are numerous sections of the contract that apply to this excess
situation. Please read carefully. If you have an issue that is not
covered in the Q&A, please contact your Chief Pilot and they will get the
answer to your question.

Posting 07-02
Official Posting of Crewmembers
Vacancy (V) or Excess (E)
Current
No. of Crew Position Vac. Type Approx. Trng Seniority #
Positions V/E Dom. Equip. Seat Length Start Date High / Low
40 E MEM DC10 CAP n/a August, 07 21 2782
40 E MEM DC10 F/O n/a August, 07 141 4372
60 E MEM DC10 S/O n/a August, 07 1 4159

The pennies begin to drop..........

Tidy how it closes on July 23rd isn't it?

Let the Games Begin!!

Where are all the over 60 guys going to go.....CDG?

'May I have your attention please, George Costanza's Handicapped bathroom on the 3rd floor is now open to all Play Now! employees............and their families.'

'Well played'

'I'll see you in hell Constanza'

<<We expect the ratification voting period to begin on July 23rd. The balloting period will last a minimum of two weeks. During negotiations management made it clear that they did not intend to open the next aircraft bid until after the ratification process is completed.>>

What exactly are excessed pilots bidding on, taxis?

So these 140 guys will be able to take seats prior to a new FDA. Some guys might be awarded seats that they would not be able to hold if the bid was open to all pilots (yes / no)? Just trying to understand the politics of this bid.

The Company should of either posted a small vacancy bid to fill the school house or just waited and then excessed after the next large bid if necessary. If no one voluntarily bids out of the 10 and they force guys out, it is a "free pass" they can rebid when the next vacancy bid comes out and change seats again very soon in some cases without a seat lock. This could generate extra training cycles.

The guys who voluntarily bid or are forced off the 10 can go to any seat (that is not being excessed) to which someone junior already holds an award. The guys who get hosed on this deal are ones that could have held Captain on the last bid but did not bid it and now a DC10 guy junior to them moves over to that same seat. Now they will need less vacancies on the big bid and effectively could block some senior guys from holding that seat.

hmmmm ...
 

Interesting timing ...

First "AGE 60" makes us relatively less senior ...

Then this DC-10 EXCESS will likely make us relatively less senior ...

Then the FDA LAO makes us ???? :eek:

Kinda of makes you go hmmmmmm ....


Mark

Seems to me that running this excess bid now accomplishes a few things for them. It attempts to put some fear into junior crewmembers ahead of the LOA vote and the next bid. It makes the process of running the next bid cleaner/quicker for them by getting the -10 excess out of the way before the Boeing excess. It also makes the union look bad by running a bid ahead of the vote when they said that wouldn't happen. Plus with a potential 3 year bid coming it lets us know that the Boeing which is already fat, will be losing an additional 17% of it's fleet.

Assuming the excess bids are run according to activated pilots vs. those holding a bid, then the bottom 10 FO's can only hold ANC FO, 727FO or 727SO. If they go to ANC, company's happy as no need for more nuggets there, if they go to the Boeing it just tells them how many people they need to excess before the Aug. bid. I think the latter is also the reason they unzipped their fly and said that HKG is going to be a Bus base. It gives the more senior 10FO's the opportunity to avoid the Bus and it's potential STV issues by bidding something else. This keeps the company from having to award someone a Bus excess bid, only to have them change their mind in Aug. on the next bid if the LOA passes. Not saying it's going to work out that way for them, but they are trying to make their job easier. It's just like the little question on the bids about whether or not you're going to stay around past 60. At the very least it will give them some sort of tweaking info the next bid. I can understand the company giving us something to think about, but I don't understand why our union isn't clearing up the waters with some more official comm. on all this stuff.