FDX-contract improvements next negotiations
 

At the hub meeting the other night, I had a good talk with DM about the upcoming contract negotiations. We agreed that we (yes that's INCLUDING the crewforce) need to get this process going NOW. While he said the union will do the usual polling, I said that we (the pilots) need to start making a list (and checking it twice:D) of what we think should, MUST be fixed or improved, or just maintained (and I mean SPECIFICS) in the next contract and passing it to our reps and the NC. He agreed.
Prioritize your list, BOLD it, whatever!!! But MAKE your views known to the union and NC. It will be OUR contract so let's have the NC know and fight for what we want this time.

So get off your b*tts, put your (including my) complaining to work, contact your reps, and get this process moving.

First order of business is remove ALPA!

Then we can work on repairing all the damage done by DW and the ALPA "reps."

Sure would like to see something that fixes the accepted fare BS. Once again this month accepted fares are only 80% of scheduled fares. Of course it would be tough to beat the current language that says the deviation bank will be the higher of the accepted fare or the scheduled fare. So maybe we can add a "no kidding" clause.

I'm not a commuter, so I do not deviate much, but are you saying that the accepted fare is less than the price of the ticket that the company is providing for the non deviator?

. . . . . .

Yes. My scheduled ticket for MEM-MDT 10 Feb is $381. The accepted fare is $326. As soon as I deviate the bank for the trip will drop from $381 to the accepted fare of $326. Been all over the block with CE, they tell me it is a historic problem that can not be grieved. I tell them that NO it is a problem since FOX took over expense reports. The company and CE win I lose.

Yes.
 

Increasingly, by the time the tickets are actually purchased, the ACTUAL purchase price EXCEEDS the "accepted fare" (in some cases by a large amount $$$)

However, the company has decided that they only have to credit your "deviation bank" with the higher amount if you utilize the ticket AS SCHEDULED - ie. if you do not deviate and just travel on the scheduled DH ticket - in escence it's a wash if you don't deviate no matter how much the company has to pay for the ticket.

This new wrinkle, when practically applied, allows the company to publish ANY $$ amount they wish for the "accepted fare" (with no oversight or input from the union)

An extreme example would be published "accepted fare = $1.00" - actual
ticket for the non-deviators costs $300.00, and the deviator would only get $1.00 in his deviation bank.

And since that is what the company has published as the "accepted fare", there is nothing any of us (union) can do (or is doing) to stop it.

To a lessor degree, that is what has been happening lately..........company is forced to pay higher amounts for tickets, but if you elect to deviate, you get whatever they feel like giving you as the "accepted fare" (even though that amount is becoming less and less realistic in comparrison to what they actually have to pay for the scheduled tickets) - not sure who sets the "accepted fare" or if there is any oversight process from the union - but I don't believe there is???

That's what all the hub-bub is about.

And the union has said that they have only found a negligible number of cases where the company has "traditionally practiced" giving guys the higher amount after the fact - even though most people think/say the company has "always given us the higher amount if we email them the actual ticket receipt"...... :confused:

The problem is the accepted fares and the scheduled fares were historically close. When they differed scheduling would revise the pairing and use the scheduled fare as the new accepted fare. They no longer do this. Most of my examples are where scheduling has revised the pairing.

Would like to see a buy-back option for unused sick leave. And not pennies on the dollar. I earned it and one way or another I'm going to have it. No where near 60 yet but if you want to see someone hang on longer than 60 just go sick for a long time. Lets see 5 weeks of vacation, plus 72 hours of sick leave per year plus 686 hours of accumulated sick time and full medical benifits till your 65. Not a bad part time job...............Talk about ineffiency. :cool:

Another thing along with travel banks, wouldn't it be nice to have a quarterly bank?