Have you taken a look at how many people are in the back of the Boeing right now, even before the -10 excess bid?

 

yeah.....ok......then how 'bout......"you'll probably be on the property flying in the right seat of something LONG before........."? maybe not "protecting essential".

My point was that they'd no longer be poolies and worried about being offered the "dreaded" option of "be hired and FDA'd or see ya" - guys way further on down the road are the ones who might have to worry about that.

 

I'm not so sure you're correct AFW. Let's assume the FDA's fill completely with volunteers like you were hypothesizing. If they company is fat on pilots like they say, then I think that there is little chance of vacancies on the bus or -11. Add in Subic's closure, the excess off the -10, the fatness of all the seats in the Boeing, company jitters over Age 65, more pilots moving to the back seat of the Boeing as a hedge on the 65 deal, the domestic return of the Airbus SIBA Europe pilots in a few years, and you get an interesting situation. Don't see them furloughing, so I expect that they will leave a lot of people in the Boeing back and possibly right seats until they filter themselves out to other positions over the next few years. Why? Lowest costs. They can't force them to the FDA's if they don't wish to go and bumping the back seat of the Boeing means bumping the purple nuggets, which is more money to the bean counters. This means that the only new hire positions will be growth positions which over the next few years will be mostly: A300HKG, A300MEM, A300CDG, -11HKG and maybe MEM, 757CDG, 757MEM, 777CDG, 777MEM. Considering that there will still be a surplus of senior people(at least relatively) for all of the domestic openings, that leaves the FDA's as the junior vacancies, possibly as the initial guys upgrade to new positions after the initial bid. This is all of course assuming that all the initial vacancies are filled internally, if not it just accelerates this time frame imo. Considering the relative lack of retirements and growth direction, it's seems unlikely that newhires will be going domestic in the future. Disclaimer: this means nothing about where internals from the instructor departments or the corporate side end up. Expect a few surprises there.

 

Sorry for being the "grammar police", but it is very important to use terms correctly.

Our LOA has a "housing allowance" to help pilots "offset" the extremely high price of housing in the FDAs

There is no COLA in the current LOA --- zip, zero, karapo!

A COLA would be an additional benefit, that would be a percentage of your pay that was routinely adjusted based on the value of the dollar.

It's purpose would be to help you equalize your other "non-housing" costs associated with living in the FDA, and protect you from fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

Most competitive expat pacakages contain a COLA.

Unfortunately, we accepted a LOA that does not.

We need to stay vigilant in accurately representing what we've agreed to --- remember, we're going to make incremental improvements in the future.

...one such improvement would be to get a reasonable COLA mechanism for those working in the FDAs.

 

Thanks for the info and the replies. I guess we'll wait and see what happens...

In your guys' opinion, does it still seem possible for FedEx to go with NO hiring until next June?

One other question regarding FDA's...
-if a new hire were assigned to one, would he have to be there for three years? or is there any way around it?

 

He would have to stay there until a slot he could hold opened elsewhere. The move package is for 2 years minimum.

 

Duration for a new hire at a FDA is TBD....

Not trying to be difficult, but the LOA requires a 2 year signed agreement with the company. Then it is my understanding that you have to wait until a bid is open to bid off an FDA. *****If I am wrong, someone please correct me.******

Therefore, it could be 2 years or it could be upwards of 4 years (depending on age 65, the economy, etc.)

As a new hire, I would suspect that the two year time clock begins after you are checked out, therefore, the two year clock will not begin on the hire date. But we do not have any official guidance from either the union or the company, so this is just a guess.

 

No one knows when FedEx will hire unless it is within 6 months or a quarter of it happening.

Yes, there is a way around it. Go to UPS. Take that as you will. When the MEC put the LOA to vote and the membership said yes, it was determined that newhires might have to be sent overseas with this concessionary LOA. It's up to you to put up with it or go to greener pastures. If it was me, I would go to greener pastures.

 

Gunter,
You make some good points. It hurts to even admit it though, I've been working towards flying for Purple for over 5 years. It's been a long wait, a lot of work, a successful interview, and more waiting... and now, the possibility of having to live out of the country for an undetermined amount of time. It is still my dream to fly there... but it is now a decision I have to make with my family.
I want to join you guys and am thinking I'll do what it takes, but it would still be tough to live abroad for time unknown.
Thanks again.

 

I would say a newhire to the fda is going to have to wait until his/her seniority to hold something elsewhere combined with a bid. With the rumors of two to three year bid cycles coming, you may be better off taking a move package for the two or three years and riding it out.

Only time will tell.