Huh........?

 

fred just coughed up 200 million for us...yeah let's vote it down and drag this out another 4 years!!!! we will show him!!!!

 

Big deal, isn't that less than the naming rights for a NFL stadium !

 

and that has what to do with anything?..i guess u can do better at making FDX a household name...

 

I am sorry for being stupid, I now know that the naming of a stadium for 200 plus million made FedEx a household name because it wasn't before that.

200 million being thrown our way is a big deal and we deserve more and FDX CAN afford it. If we would have turned up the heat a year ago, we would have a better TA.

 

I understand your point, I just disagree. When negotiations come up 4 years from now, they will look at our resolve, period.

I just don't think you should cast a no vote only to make a point, or try to make a point 4 years from now.

 

Why do you feel a no vote would mean everyone would need to step down. All it would mean is they did not gain as much ground as the voters felt they deserved. Really, aside from some nice wording in sections, an agency shop going forward, some minor stop gap solutions for retirees (which can be changed whenever the company wants like they've done already) what did we get. Based upon your pay rates on Dec 03 (the last pay raise) will your standard of living be much beter with the new contract in Dec 10? Your basic pay rates relatively speaking will still be the same no increase. If you fly int some Int override will offset the declining dollar overseas and 5-7% international cost of living increases. We added a small B fund bump with a company dependant A fund. Where are the retirement options? Increased B fund with decreased A fund for younger guys. A three tier proposal? These were some of the ideas I thought we were addressing.

Of the cornerstones, one, scope was completely unaddressed. We still left the door wide open for a Chinese FDX airline. They could operate 150 planes all over China 73s, 75s, who cares because it would be allowed under the scope section. Since we have already added TNT, all they need is to wrap an airline under the TNT label and they are off and running. We didn't even fix Tradewinds. I think the 72 seat RJs they are buying for the feeder ops continue to get free passes. As long as they don't duplicate routes, the RJs can move lots of freight for free. You could send one Norfolk to Newark and another Norfolk to Greensboro and another to Indy and it would all be within the scope section. Lots of scope problems on the horizon and are we going to lose 4 more years waiting to fix them.

I am very appreciative of the hard work, but it sure looks like we laid down on a lot of sections. Personally, I was hoping for a 15% snap back then cost of living for the 2.5 years waiting and 3% per for every year going forward. Put some penalty increases in after the amendable date. 4% at the one year point, 5% at the two year point. I wanted to see an 11-13% B fund choice in exchange for a 35-40% capped A fund, or something like that. Money in my account not theirs. Min Pay per day. I feel like I waited all year for Christmas and opened the same present I got last year, just with a nicer ribbon.

I hope they show us the results of all the polling. It would be very helpful to know how everyone answered. If 90% feel one way and I'm in the 10%, maybe I need to rethink my position. Or if it was 51% on way that's helpful to. We need to know what the fellows said they wanted. If this is really what we all said we wanted then so be it. But.....

 

Come on Mark, your numbers are junk. Even if you use the $185k/yr avg pay the company says we make multiplied by 4700 pilots, even a 3% COLA increase is just under 30 mil per year. We are looking at a seven year window 03 to 10. There's your 200 mil really quick. They're not offering up a "good deal" you're just not losing pay. Throw in retirees and that takes a bigger brain than mine to figure out the percentages but they're not real big. Heck, I think the 500 mil number that at one time was bounced around over five years only amounted to around a .07 cents per package price increase for FDX. Not a big price to pay for the company.

 

Good post. I'd be really interested to hear other people's interpretations over the proposed TA.

For what it's worth, I don't think you are in the bottom 10%.

 

I've read the TA. I need to re-read the details and go to the road shows. Anyone who thought we were going to get everything we wanted is living in a dreamland. Actually, the scope clause we TA'ed, I was told, was everything we wanted. My personal feeling is that if we gave anything up for a worthless piece of paper like Scope, we wasted it. Scope is and always has been worth whatever the company is willing to pay to break it IMO. Whether it be with fines or legal fees, if they determine it will be worth the effort financially they will do it. The only thing that will keep them from doing it is they know we would react as a pilot group in a very negative manner.

As far as Bitme goes, you owe and apology to every one you called a moron that did the right thing and stayed home on there days off. To generalize that anyone outside of Subic, ANC or MD11 F/O's are "morons" is showing just how much thought you put into your statements and renders your opinion less respectable. Yes, those groups stood out, and yes I was disappointed in the MD11 Capt's like BB who used this opportunity to pad their pockets but there were a great many more, including me, that did the right thing. To group everyone in with Capt's like BB and his pals was flat out wrong.

Read the TA, ask your questions, attend the roadshows and then make up your mind. Shooting from the hip after one quick read and focusing on what you perceive as the negatives doesn't serve this group very well. There will likely be good and bad. In the end decide whether or not it is worth another 2 years because historically that is what it will take if we vote this down.