It's a holdover from the Flight Crew Handbook, which was created in 1975. I don't know if the FCH started out with a 15 year scale or if it was changed later, but the "FedEx Pilot History" on the ALPA website mentions an effort in 1984 by The Company to institute a 13-year, 2-tier pay system. That was followed by a petition signed by 95% of the pilots (sounds like unity?) which was followed by a public chewing-out of the pilots by Massah Fred.






.

IIRC FX management unilaterally imposed this during the self-help period of 1995-96. It gave anybody with 12+ years on the property an instant "pay raise".


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Yeppp, that's exactly how FDX ended up with a 15 year pay scale.

Self-help continued until December, 1998.






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Just talked to my buddy at Delta. He is prior NWA, and is a thumbs down. He said the profit sharing give back and sick leave change are enough to say no. He got a 20% profit sharing last year alone. The pilots profit sharing is tied to other work groups so if the pilots get less the company can reduce the profit sharing of those groups also.

Me personally I could care less if I'm making $330 an hour. When we have pilots dying at 55 what good is a high hourly rate ? Not only do we have to keep our work rules and vacation but we need BETTER work rules. What the company has done to our schedules is killing us. I remember when I wouldn't bid any international trip with less than a 24hr layover, now you're lucky to have 24hrs.

I know. I meant it was sometime during 95-96 that it was imposed.


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Ahh, gotcha.






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Profit sharing
 

[QUOTE=Flybywyr;1903805]Just talked to my buddy at Delta. He is prior NWA, and is a thumbs down. He said the profit sharing give back and sick leave change are enough to say no. He got a 20% profit sharing last year alone. The pilots profit sharing is tied to other work groups so if the pilots get less the company can reduce the profit sharing of those groups also.

Does anyone know why we never discuss profit sharing at FDX?
Is that something unique to the pax carriers or am I missing something obvious?

We had profit sharing before we had a CBA. In fact, our last Profit Sharing Check was not only held hostage to ratification of the CBA, it was delayed by 6 months to punish us.






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We exchanged the profit sharing for the B-fund. Cost neutral baby! Our pie never
gets bigger we just get to decide what it tastes like.

Do you guys have lines or trips that are held by line check airmen pulled from FOs bidding them?


(and yes the DL TA is a turd. :( )

Sort of. You can bid line that a LCA is on and get bumped some. But in theory all of our training are line trips where one or both guys get bumped.

Instructor spend 1 out of 3 months "in the schoolhouse" and are assigned trips and students at the beginning of the month. Everyone is usually happy.

I believe this part of the contract is the same as when I left Purple.....If either/both of the bubbas are bumped for IOE, they get paid, and have NO recovery obligation.

Guys would buddy bid me, and in a growth phase, they could get the entire month off at full line credit....many times every one of my line trips had an IOE student assigned....the bumpee could volunteer to fly on any of those days and receive that pay, plus his bumped trip pay.

There is/was none of that holding trips out of line construction to assign to LCA's for IOE.......seems like a real give back to DAL mgt, to the detriment of all F/O's.

Best of luck,
BG

That sounds like what we have now at DL.

The new TA, the captains will bid, and then they will pull 75% of the trips that line check airmen got awarded from the pot for the FO's to bid.

Crappy crappiness.

At UPS, all the LCA Lines are locked out for the FO's to Bid.

I hated this when I was an FO. I think it was a slap to the Seniority System. If one could hold a LCA line, he should be awarded it.

Not at UPS. Why the IPA accepted this is mind blowing. Back in 1991.

Thanks, Commando! I'm amazed that this exists, and you're right it's absolutely an abrogation of seniority.

You can say that again. What does it matter if we are DYING at 55? Or if we're lucky, living beyond that and dying 14-15 years earlier than the average American?

Though I suppose one could argue that if we had a much higher hourly pay rate, then we could drop more trips. Work less=live longer. But it's not in most pilot's DNA to work less. Though I am enjoying the summer, and working on my longevity.

I realize this seems to be common knowledge (that we die earlier than the average Joe) and it makes good fodder on a forum. But I'd like to see the scientific study that shows we actually die before our friends outside the industry. Also, are dying before our comrades at Delta/United/American as well? If there's a legit scientific study proving this hypothesis, it needs to be made aware to all of us at FedEx.

It's in all our DNA to work less. To be specific, it's in our DNA to work less for more. Management has the same DNA.

Rotating shifts shorten lives ? A Blog Around The Clock

I would like to see this too. It seems like it would be incredibly easy for both the union and the company to compile this information. But I doubt it would be beneficial to the company to release the statistics. However, it would be appreciated---to either put the rumors to rest, or give us information that might help us protect our health. When are people dying, and what from? We would like to know that.

A few years back when we were doing the ground school courses in conjunction with CMV1, one of our instructors seemed to have the data, that he declared as fact. He said we were dying at an average age 64, and FedEx generally didn't have to provide retirement funds for more than a couple of years. So was he full of it, or does someone have the data?

It is pretty believable to me. I am weary of hearing of some otherwise healthy guy just died in his fifties, from causes unknown, sudden heart attack, or an unusual disease. I don't want to hear about another woman getting cancer. It's just too many people, and the obituaries I want to read are about a pilot dying after a long life in his or her nineties. Not in their fifties.

Their is an ALPA board (consisting of FDX retired pilots) managing the post Medicare supplemental insurance fund that we all pay 50 cents an hour into. I am sure they have some data.

In the article mentioned above, they worked 6 days in the same shift before they were rotated 8 hours latter plus one day to the next shift equaling 32 hours off before the change. I wish I had that much day or night purity in my lines.

Then maybe I should get off my butt and start asking. Will post anything I find out on this forum, of course.

Pilot health (cancer?)
 

I vaguely remember (15 years ago?) a University study on pilot health. It might have been a FedEx pilot's kid or relative doing the study?

ALPA seemed to be onboard with the concept of this study and encouraged pilots to participate if surveyed during the study?

Anyone have more details than I do?


:eek:

Maybe it was in an appendix of the Ender's Safety Study that Management never shared with the pilots?

FWIW ... my previous airline Management used to post retired pilots obituaries on the Flight Ops bulletin board. It seemed like almost ALL of them died from some sort of cancer?

"There is an ALPA board"

:D

They're is an ALPA board? :confused:

Ya'll better be getting your grammar act together, or a Grammar Nazi is going to take you down!:eek:

Because really, who cares if we're dropping dead like flies? Gotta use proper English.

It ain't longevity tables that I worry about, its burning lithium batteries and undeclared HASMAT. Its flying with radioactive cargo. Its being extended to FAR limits that would be illegal with passengers on board.

Don't compare me to pax pilots. Our job is more dangerous, demanding, and profitable. Pay us more.

I heard from a crew bus driver that the union and the company were "asked" by the NMB to meet again this week.

He said they are getting down to the money issues.

He said there would be a union conference call sometime this week.

The union is always saying we should stay "engaged and informed".

Sure would be nice if they would inform us about what is going on.

How can we stay "engaged" if they don't "inform" us?

From the Seaboard retired pilots.

"Belated birthday wishes

Capt. Harry Donnell celebrated his 100th birthday on August 3rd, 2014 and John Willmott celebrated his 100th birthday on November 18th, 2014. A very belated happy birthday to Harry and John."

That is awesome!

However, I actually meant I'd prefer reading about FedEx pilots dying in their nineties instead of their fifties (not that there would be many at this point even if they all survived since retirement, anyways). Those guys would have been about 75 when FedEx acquired Tigers, so they never flew one day here.

I think you will find it difficult to find many FedEx pilots reaching their 90s because the company is so young.

I suggest you email RK FedEx ALPA Aeromedical guy. I had a conversation with him about the issue about 5 years ago. According to Ross ALPA did have a study done, but for some reason they have not published it. The result showed that pilots lived a long time, better than the general population.

The two Seaboard pilots that reached age 100 did most of their flying at a time where only a few weird guys were runners. Hotel gyms were unheard of. If you happened to be a non smoker you probably shared the cockpit with three smokers. If you were flying passenger flights the F/As came to the cockpit for a smoke break.

Yes we all read about the guy that dies of a heart attack at age 52 or the guy that dies of cancer at age 32. They are the exception.

[QUOTE=FoxHunter;1905451]The result showed that pilots lived a long time, better than the general population.[QUOTE]

This is what I'm talking about. It's a general belief that we die early but maybe in reality we live as long as the average dude. I just don't know.

There have been a lot of exceptions at FedEx in the last few years.

An article quoting a study with some numbers from ALPA https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141...er-than-others

Here is a list from the FTL retired pilot web site. I would say the average pilot lives to his 80s early 90s.

MEMORIAM

One question, were you MANAGEMENT?

No, Never!

Kind of making me wonder, here. A little unrealistic, saying that the average pilot lives to his 80's to early 90's. Not even close, even from his own list. Just going through the first 50 or so...most pilots were dying in their seventies, with plenty dying in their fifties and sixties. Yes, some guys made it to their eighties and even some in their nineties, but that was not the average pilot. Most of those guys probably didn't even fly for FedEx for more than a short time, if at all.

Even passenger carrier pilots have a shorter lifespan than the average American. Look at MD11 Hog's link, for just one example. Thinking that we don't have this problem is wishful thinking, if not delusional.:confused: