So......do you think that it's also "slimey" to tell the 59yr 364 day old that he has a job for 5 more years and the 60yr 0 day that he has to retire? That's what happened at almost every other airline. The difference of course, is that whereas most other airlines have no, or a frozen pension, our over 60 guys HAVE A JOB and HAVE A PENSION. Using your logic, it should be OK for every 60-65 former pilot at every airline to come back with seniority and benefits. Oops, the new law forbids it. Slimey it is.

 

Maybe it would be better if it were similar to what Southwest is doing. They are letting the "prunes" come back, they keep their longevity, ie vacation, but they start over at the bottom seniority wise. If they want to fly until they die, they get to start from the bottom again.

I think that would be a heck of a lot less heartburn than a guy who has an "injury" goes on disability and comes back to the window seat like nothing happened.

My gleeming hope is that when these guys can start taking their social security at 62 they actually start to retire....

 

Aeris,

the very simple difference is that the Age 60 guy at a pax carrier had to retire w/ no choice of continued employment.....versus our guys who could retire or move to the back seat.

So, in one situation you have a guy who has retired and left the seniority list.....and in the other, you have a guy who never retired and is still on the seniority list.

And Haywood, while I don't have any intel on what SWA is doing, it sounds as if they are "rehiring" their recent retirees as newhires and allowing them to retain their longevity (which the law did not require them to do)

And, I'm sure it feels incredibly unfair to the pax carrier guys who had to retire, but govt is unfair. The govt is the only entity allowed to legally discriminate (Congress is notorious for exempting themselves from various laws they pass).

I think our right bid via the seniority should be sacrosanct, and, it's obvious that some people think these guys seniority rights should have gone away at 60.

 

Of 48 former SWA pilots that wanted to come back...after re-interviewing for their previous job, only 22 (I think) were hired back. The other were told...people didn't enjoy flying with you, thanks for applying.

BWP...Geiko customer

 

Gone away? Nope, they should have maintained the same seniority rights they had when they turned 60. Job security, 36 days of vacation, a bazillon sick hours, relative seniority within their seat position , 2% per year if they hadn't reached 25 yrs service, multiplier on their pension when they retire, the ability to call you "son" when you disagree with him, everything. Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving dinner with DW! Not sure who pays for the Dom?