Its Official; we are doomed
 

PC FCIF announces BLG reductions and possible furloughs.

https://pilot.fedex.com/news/2008/de..._manning.shtml
Pilot Over Manning Road Map
FCIF 08-0744 (Admin)


One of the primary reasons for the overmanning...AGE 60!:(

This is the only pilot induced probem or possible remedy if you will.

ALL pilots with 25 YOS and age 60 or over please read:
Thank you for your service and for making FedEx what it is today but you are now officially part of the problem, in case you haven't heard. So please do whats right and submit your retirement paperwork. I would also think that pay parity with retirment will be much closer for even those pilots who have not attained 25 YOS in light of the upcoming significant BLG reductions.

I'm in favor of and support the concept of BLG reductions to prevent furloughs. I am not however going to support keeping our 25&60's around 1 more day in light of this situation and hope a loud message is sent from every pilot that its time for all of these folks to retire!:(

ACARS Init, APU Start...$$$$

link
 

Would someone mind cut-and-pasting the news in the link for the rest of us to see.

Thanks.

Rott

not me
 

Highly doubtful anyone would as this is a corporate communication

As mentioned, the link is to a company confidential posting that requires a password protected log-on.

Please do not (re)post it here. Discussion is fine.

Thanks

So what does the FCIF say? (readers digest version)

I would like to suggest that whatever the 'message' is, they WAITED TOO LATE to put it out. For someone anticipating 'retirement' in the upcoming year, it would have been necessary to have the paperwork in and approved for a retirement based upon TODAY'S DATE!

Tomorrow, or any subsequent day in 2009 is too late to take advantage of the "Use it, or lose it" vacation policy, which would be a substantial hit for an elderly, senior type. Starting tomorrow, if the individual chooses to retire shortly, based upon this new information, he has to use or lose all of the vacation accrued in 2008, instead of getting a BIG, FAT lump sum check, in addition to the monthly retirement check that starts up as soon as he hangs it up. That is why you see a lot of retirement dates of December 31 . .at least in the past . . .of guys who would be turning 60 the first few months of the upcoming year.

BAD management planning, if the intention was to shake a few codgers loose with whatever this FCIF contained. If it had been put out around the 1st of the month, it might have motivated a few (peer pressure even) to submit their paperwork.

Happy New Year . . and Good Luck!:(

Funny,

I thought the same thing. Maybe they think the old-timers will retire anyway, and they can avoid boosting one of their high fives this way......

Bean Counters.....gotta love 'em

At least all of the over 60 guys will still be around to give us advice on how they survived the Great Depression when they were kids.

The way things are headed. .YOU are going to be able to do that!

On a trip and getting ready to head down to the lobby. Trying to collect my thoughts and look at the big picture here. Removing the rose-colored glasses. It's quite possible I will be facing my third furlough in my undistinguished airline career should Fedex even use the scalpel approach to reduce manning. Gotta tell you it's going to make my ice-cold adult beverage go down awfully tough when I get home this evening.
But then I think of the guys at Airborne Express, TWA, Midwest, ATA et al(not El Al) and I take a different perspective on what's happening. Nobody's dying here. My kids are still heathy and all my siblings seem to have their mental and physical health(but then there is this brother of mine who talks to his golf balls that I've always wondered about).
I get just as ****ed as the next guy at those over 60 with 25 years of time with the company that got back or remain in the front seat. I want to shout at them and ask them why they would allow this to happen to a guy with a young family when they could just retire and go away. Chaps my a$$! But again, they have their personal agenda and I refuse to live my life in anger and hostility when it benefits no one.
What's my point you ask as you scratch your head and wonder if I'm using this as cheap therapy(yes, because I can't afford real therapy). I have faith that JG and his crew will do everything they can to see that our COLLECTIVE interests are looked after. While I do that, I'll thank God that I'm not in Iraq or Afghanistan getting shot at(that REALLY sucked) and that another 9-11 hasn't happened yet. Trust me folks, something akin to 9-11 happens again and we are ALL in a hurt locker professionally.
If you can, through your rage and anxiety, tell your spouse and kids you love them, call your family members you can't see and be thankful for the health and life that you still have. A lot of folks are doing the dirt dance now that always expected to wake up tomorrow and see 2009. And TRY to be civil to ALL your brethren Fedex pilots...your angst hurts nobody but you. Take care y'all and hang on for the ride!

Well, there goes my theory...

Here's to all operating tonight...fly safe.

And to our over 60 crowd, now's the time to do the right thing.

Alright FDX ALPA, deeds not words...go get 'em!!

Protect/enforce our agreement!!

You know what torques me off the most about the FCIF?
How we simply can't go on with the 'over-manned state'...of course, making OVER A BILLION, it must hurt!

Somebody wake up the advertising department at UPS

We've saved the company 2 million a month in gas, they have to pay 1 million to buy up our lines...boo-hoo!

We're no longer in this together, management has thrown us under the bus.

Yeah, Fred took his "20% pay cut" and is now going to exact his revenge on those of us in the "evil association" (union for the rest of us).

Hamfist,

I hear you, and you've obviously got some serious industry perspective and some massive compartmentalization skills. I don't wake up blaming the world for my lot in life either, I'm very blessed.

I might, however, need to pray for forgiveness for the sins I may commit against the next "Bro" I meet who's flying a draft trip.

Happy New Year, fly safe, and thank you to all my Alpa Reps who are doing the right thing, working hard to communicate this New Year's Eve so that we rank and file have some perspective. I appreciated all the Union communication and perspective so that the FCIF wasn't all I heard this evening, and that didn't happen without some effort.

SD

If we're currently overmanned by 700 pilots (without MBPG reduction to min). What are the adjusted figures with the MBPG reduction. I'll ask my rep. But, I think that should have been included in the FCIF.

With the MBPG reduction that was "supposed" by the company (as per the neg. comm. chairman's message) of 58 CH for 4 week, etc., (ie not using the 48/60 mins as "unrealistic" for now) and using ALL the members on the seniority list (4679), the amount of man-hours saved per year would leave a surplus of 14 pilots with the reductions. ( ie reduction to 58 CH MBPG; not accounting for sick, mil, more downturn, more "upturn", everyone flying equivalent hours, no hurricanes, ice storms, etc etc)

I like those figures, but where did they come from?

And I do know that you do not end a sentence with from, bt that is how I talk. Sorry in advance.

Everybody needs to read this trash from our investor relations folks and then piece together what they (management) is doing to our employee relations, i.e., chopping all of our pay, taking away 401k match for the vast majority of employees, threatening furloughs (something that was always taboo).
Our company is penny wise and pound foolish and truly going down a downhill path.

Mission, Strategy, Values | About FedEx

I'm with ya, thanks.

What?
 

Ok, so let me understand this. If we furlough 700 pilots, what will be the cost to replace the 125 ACN FO's affected, the 20+ HKN FO's affected, and the 64 MEM MD11 FO's affected. Not to mention the ANC and HKG move packages. I must not have the big picture. Can you help me?

What was the old brain bag sticker? "Fly till you die?" We need a new one for our "buddies" - "Fly till we furlough."

Overheard an over 60 guy looking to roll into the 727 back seat at 65 (on a 0130 hub turn). What is the cost savings/pilot of guys croaking in their hotel room and never picking up a retirement check? Or will the company deposit his survivor benefit into the National Bank of Campenas for disbursal?

Still nothing from the union about carry over bidding (guys protecting it and flying 120 hour lines...). Protecting the senior guys is what this comes down to. If this was stopped now at least half of the problem would be taken care of.

Overmanning issue
 

I don't think you read the NC Chairman's msg that had a point about "fair and equitable C/O" in our Union proposal to the company--they (the company management dogs) don't want it.
As the C/O thing is just another thing to keep us mad at each other instead of at the company for pitting us against each other.

Nope. C/O is just another thing to be mad at the company about. They're the ones who build the pairings. You knew that, right?

The union wants to work an agreement to limit this stuff but the company says no. There is no reason to be mad at each other about this.

The company has their fangs out and they want blood....

Gunter-
You missed the jist of my post (or maybe I failed to convey it well), as I completely agree with you...

A300,

The problem is there is no "fair and equitable C/O." Only the senior guys can work that system. So they will gobble them up and still have 100 hr + lines and the rest of us working stiffs will slugg it out on the 48 hr lines. Do away with it all or this is a no go in my book. As long as there are lines out there with more that a couple days of carry over it is a show stopper. There are some pairings that always require some carry over but it is ridiculous right now. I have 7 days of carryover they gave me on a VTO in Jan, and PC wants to cut us in Feb? Not even close to "fair and equitable" the way the bid pack is written right now.

I would imagine that the union would try to put some sort of cap in place to trade c/o for future month BLG (like every other airline has in their contracts) in order to have a limit to how much c/o a crewmember could make without losing BLG in the follow-on month.
I certainly don't know that to be the exact case, but in my mind, that would be moving towards fair and equitable, especially given the state of our company stated "over-manning".
Once again, the company doesn't really want that to happen! They'd rather have us taking it out on the guys that are protecting the c/o at the expense of the entire crewforce. Because their desire is to keep us fractured!

It'll be gone soon. I think that it has already been posted at least once.

Sounds to me you guys work for a company that is actually being managed. Those evil executives are actually trying to do something to keep the company solvent so that there can be jobs and services long into the future.

Many of us on this board, while very junior at Purple, have been through this before. The key is not to panic and stay unified.

Save, don't spend. Choose safe investments. If you're in the guard/reserves, stay. Consider taking a year to go on orders and go to school or do a flying or staff tour. If you're not currently serving, consider joining back up. If you're a civilian only guy, develop a buisness.

There are contract protections in place to keep the guys on the property on the property. We have to hold the company's feet to the fire to the letter on these protections. The company will try to exploit our fear and try to divide us. That's their job; our job is not to be divided.

It's my belief that FedEx will not furlough. Guys in ANC, guys in HKG, paid moves, training cycles, I just don't see it. But they will make you think they will and take full advantages of your fear. The guys I worry about are the guys like the 727 CA I flew with a few months ago: big house, big car collection, two airplanes and a nose in VIPS open time every time he was near a computer. If you're flying your month plus two trips and barely making it as a narrow body CA, you need to slow your roll.

Read the contract, know the contract, enforce the contract.

Not a problem with that. As a shareholder I don't like seeing lines bought up to 68 hours when we aren't producing any revenue. The problem is hitting the pilot group with (effectively) a 29.5% pay cut. Cut it 10% like the VP's and I can live with it. Don't make us the scapegoats for poor work force planning.

Here's what I think:

1. Orders came down from on high to cut pilot pay;

2. They looked at the contract. Only way they could lower pilot pay is when they are preventing a furlough.

3. They use the required language so they can abide by the contract. They can't say, "We're cutting pilot salaries." They can say, "We're cutting pilot salaries to prevent a furlough."

MOD NOTE:
Please do not post the FCIF as it is against APC policy and just an issue we do not want to get into. It company related priviliged information and when posted here is reported by fellow FDX pilots many times over to us.

If it wasnt for Fred none of us would be here!! Be glad that you still have a job and are not at one of the other(take your pick airlines) who has gone under. There are hundreds of pilots on the street and at other airlines who would jump at the chance to work at FedEx and wouldn't complain half as much. If you think you can find something better, then leave. I have put in my time and I am in for the long haul!

By the way. Remember its not just us taking a hit. The rest of OUR company is taking a hit too!

Welcome to the forum.

We've already taken a hit. At least the earnings total on my W2 is going to be less than last years, even after a longevity raise and the contractual raise.

I am in it for the long haul too. But that doesn't mean accepting everything without a grain of salt, nor does it mean bending over to take it just because I should be grateful to have a job 100s of other pilots don't.

nor does it mean taking an additional huge salary cut simply to maintain the profitibility margin so the stock doesn't take a hit.

When are the shareholders of OUR company going to take a hit? Afterall, it's apparently about the economic survival of FedEx in some individuals eyes.
And, aren't we all in this together

Pardon my ignorance but is there any language in your contract that enforces a cap of any kind associated with the reduced BLG? If the company can reduce the guarantee is there anything that prevents them from keeping the line credits high on some fleets and seats while greatly lowering the credit value on others?