A fellow jumper recently told me about a conversation he had a couple of years ago with a retired FDX lawyer who worked on the last contract. I was amazed how simple the solution is to getting the contract done, he conversation went something like this;

The enemy lawyer told this pilot, "individually you guys are sharp but collectively you're one of the dumbest groups I've ever seen"

His supporting numbers were amazing, we are historically manned at about 70% of what we need to fly all the lines. If we did nothing more than fly what we bid (carry over trips in the bid pack are OK) then the company is 30% short of pilots!

How do they fill hat 30% every month?
It's easy, pilots doing makeup, draft and selling back vacation.
Even for a remedial guy like me it's crystal clear by a wide margin, STOP ANYTHING EXTRA, fly your line and freight will be left on the ramp......if freight gets left on the ramp we now have bargaining power. Our brothers and sisters in ANC recognized this fact during our last go around and thanks to their lead we got the company to take meaningful action.

Apologies if this post comes across as obvious or condescending but I was sincerely blown away by how simple the solution is and the incredible potential bargaining power we hold as a pilot group.

 

If only that message could get across to some of the dumba$$ MD-11 fo's and capts that are still picking up draft right now.

 

If his numbers are correct and we didn't fly carryover we would be 40% short of pilots.

 

Just for the record, it was the MEM MD 11 FOs that made the last one happen. Nothing against the ANC guys.

We don't want to go rewriting history.

 

Sorry.. But based on what I have been reading here, an overwhelming majority of the FOs are making the sacrifice and it is our "mentors" not holding the line.. I haven't heard of 1 left seat not getting filled and have heard that most of the right seats are getting filled by our "best of the best."

 

Maybe. But what you're reading here is just a small snapshot. The reality is, most of the open seats are in the right seat, and I don't think only capts and reserves are filling them. The right seat is where it counts right now. Definitely bad on the capts for doing their draft thing, but everyone needs to be responsible.

 

Said differently, Not one of us is as dumb as all of us!

 

Great post. I believe the numbers are accurate. By virtue of being understandably cheap, and knowing us better than we know ourselves collectively, the company established both a mechanism to own us and a way for us to own them, if only we would use that power wisely and collectively. It's time for us to take control of this situation.

 

Additional comments from that same lawyer involving our last contract and flying extra..........

Allegedly, during Fred's weekly meetings he is briefed on all kinds of data and one of the metrics is service failures. We historically have a pretty steady and low rate of service failures but during our last contract negotiations when guys stop flying the extra stuff (make up, draft, vacation buy backs) the SF line spiked up. This got Fred's attention and the quote that was passed to me was;
"They finally figured it out, get the contract done before peak"

Disclaimer: I am certainly not claiming to have firsthand knowledge of any of this but that's what was passed to me so I figured it was worth passing on, something interesting anyway and I'm pretty sure this some real truth to it