Originally Posted by FreightDawgyDog

I think there is a simpler explanation here. Some in management wanted to allow over 60 S/O's to come back to the left seat of WB aircraft after the age change. Without any thought to how it might affect staffing during an already down period on our earnings, they did this by canceling an already awarded bid and then running excess bids off the back of the 727 and DC10 when there were no primary awards needed in the other seats. Then, when the flying in some aircraft had to be spread out, lines were being built to under 68 BLG due to this over-staffing of the most expensive seats from the cheapest seats. More and more lines had to be bought up to the 68 BLG min (as agreed to in the contract) every month. I believe the extra cost was about 1 million per month. The pressure above our managers was squarely on them to justify this when FedEx was already making less profits then they liked. Their answer was to stop buying up the lines by an inappropriate use of 4a2b. You are correct that they have probably spent more money in doing this (via excesses causing needless training and move packages) then had they kept buying up lines. All the beancounters were looking at was the paying of pilots for 68 hours when they were only working 60 to 65 so they didn't really look beyond the initial savings IMO. Our managers looked good to their superiors by sticking it to the pilots and the union by instituting 4a2b and stopping the BLG buy ups.

As far as the union dues not dropping due to 4a2b that makes sense as well. The flying is still being done by those protecting carry over and taking draft and volunteer, as well as the fact that some bidpack BLG's are at historic highs while others are historic lows. If only we could all accept 4a2b for one month and live by those BLG's the questions to our managers from above would change drastically from BLG buy-ups to explaining all the service failures and total loss of revenue to the company it caused. Heck, even 2 weeks might be enough to make big changes happen very quickly. 2 guys who never got it are leaving next month. If no one takes over their 120 BLG paying lines it would be a great start to getting rid of 4a2b.

The true cost of 4a2b can be seen in the loss of pilot goodwill towards doing anything above and beyond the minimum their job requires. Just look at the fuel sense program. If you have been to RGS lately you have heard them bemoaning the fact that our delayed start numbers are way down. Anyone wonder when it started to drop off? My guess is the downward spike of delayed start usage declined quickly with the start of 4a2b. It will take something extraordinary to get that goodwill back IMO.

As contract openers get closer it will do this pilot group well to remember that right after saving the company 200 million in fuels savings, management started 4a2b to cover their staffing errors. Yes, the BLG's are creeping slowly upward and hurting a little less but don't let that distract you. Even if it is repealed, we need to remember that it was done. It's just good business on our part.

Sorry for the long post. I think it is important we keep 4a2b in perspective. I truly believe it was not about furlough protection as much as it was a face saving maneuver for stopping BLG buy-ups at our expense. Your mileage may vary though. ..

Originally Posted by FDXLAG

So you are saying a 20% paycut is not similar to a B scale?