FreightDawgyDog

"hey guys...if they fly those disputed pairings at ava does that matter?...an fo told me a lot of them were picking them up as ava because as long as noone flies them at 100% pay besides reserve it still costs the company money and they are not being flown at 100%...misconception?"

Firstly, as pointed out earlier, those flying this month are doing so at straight time, not AVA, DFT or VLT. Secondly, it doesn't matter if they are flying them at 500% because if they are we send the message that safety has a price. To me, the only price safety has is the highest one you can pay when an accident results by breaching it. When the SIG looks at thousands of pairings, deems a very small percentage to be pushing safe limits in their estimation, and asks that we back them up by not flying them at any cost (other than reserve which they can be legally assigned as), I think we owe it to them to back them up. If they are flown 3 months in a row by other than reserve we lose our ability to dispute them and have no say whatsoever in their level of safety. We also send the message that we, as a group, don't care what the SIG says and the company will take them less and less seriously with each passing month. Pilots who pick these up are showing they have no care for their fellow pilots, their dues which support the SIG, or anything else not involved in their own selfish interests. Until we as a group start to really bring the heat on these guys it will continue and our operations will be less safe as a result. The idea has never been to hurt the company by making them pay more, it has been to make these pairings go away and to motivate the company from building like pairings on the future. Just say NO to disputed pairings and tell anyone you know that flies them they are the problem!!!

fdx727pilot

To bad about you Maddog guys. There are still disputed pairings open in the 72 Cap seat. That trip sucks, and no one in their right mind would fly it.

Gunter

Unbelievable! Probation dudes picking up 727 SO disputed pairings. I know, I know, personal contact. I respect your input and wonder what these guys are thinking. Maybe they are just scared they won't be able to pick up enough open time to make ends meet.

I'm searching for a good method to get them back on the road. Someone pull these guys aside and tell them when to search open time for better pairings, please!!

Jetjok

Sure it matters. It's still a disputed pairing, regardless of whether it's paid at 100% or 500%, or it's picked up AVA, VLT, or MUS, etc, etc. The only way those things should be flown is by a reserve assignment. IMHO.

Jetjok

If they are on probation, maybe the threat of a probationary report would be enough to dissuade them from doing that again in the future. Failing that, at least they should be talked to and explained the reason for not picking up these disputed pairings. I'm sure that the vast majority of these guys just want to get along, and once shown the "light", they would appreciate the reasoning involved and not continue to take these trips.

FDXLAG

Or we can get them a living wage on the next contract.

Purple F/O

How about explaining to them how this works. We do a pretty ****ty job of 'indocing' the new-hires into all the nuances of fdx life. Disputed pairings is one of them. Last year, several made it to the right seat of the widebody before they really knew what the deal with DPs was. We went a long time with no DPs in the 72, this might have something to do with why it takes so long to get 'informed.' Sure, they gete-mails from the union mentioning them, and perhaps the prudent guy would have asked...but there's a lot of stuff going on the first few months to worry about. My money is on the fact that most of these guys don't even know the score on DPs and probably think that it might jeapardize their jobs if they don't pick them up, as if it were a job action, instead of a negotiated benefit.

MaxKts

Best 1st year pay around and after the 1st year a very good bottom line compared to others. How much do you want to give them?

MD11Fr8Dog

I think VAC buyback is a much more important and powerful planning tool for CRS than AVA, so you only see AVA because they want guys to sell back VAC. Just look at how much open time ISN'T out there and how many folks are sitting on their butts on reserve - really think anyone is picking up anything AVA??

MD11Fr8Dog

Someone threw one of the disputed pairings back into open time yesterday!