Don't forget the shall, must, will, can or may qualifiers.

Guys this TA is worse than our current policy manual. Don't think for a second the company won't exploit everything they possibly can. We'll be out 19 days and paid for 18. We'll never be on short call enough to generate enough pay credit to break guarantee, so we'll still be out 18, no make that 19 days now with only pay for the 60-hour guarantee. That's how it is going to be.

The crappy health insurance is still horribly expensive. The multiple gateway airport situation is horrible.

If I'm away from home in a hotel or in a combination of hotels and flying for 18 days, I expect pay credit to push me well over my guarantee. But that isn't going to happen here.

Honestly people, this TA is a joke. I'll accept the measly 31% pay raise this will give most people of mid-seniority, but there MUST be a Trip Rig AND a Duty Rig, there must be NO MORE than 18 days away from home PERIOD (preferably 16-17), we must be locked into just one gateway airport unless a crew member requests different for a particular trip where they might be away from home, and there MUST be cheaper health insurance and more company contribution into the 401(k).

We can all vote NO and get those things when the company realizes we won't accept anything less.

Don't be idiots and accept this steaming pile as it stands now.

That about sums it up. Other than the pay, the improvements are marginal while the QOL issues got hammered

The pay is an improvement. New hires get $350 instead of $125 for the leather jacket. The insurance premiums are an improvement for the junior guys, but the insurance itself is not very good. I think we get a little more for FAA physicals and uniform allowance.

Home basing is effectively given away. No improvement to the callout pay. No improvement to the 401k match. A day off was given away. What? no rigs??

And the conditional language... Everything needs to be "shall," "must" and "will." "Best effort," "reasonable" and "when practicable" cannot be enforced.

In many ways this is worse than the EPPH. I am confused that the NC unanimously endorses it. If it passes, there are going to be a bunch of ticked off pilots. Better paid, yes, but very ticked off.

Let me just ask, gentlemen: When Clark and Charlie step down if we reject this, and the NMB shelves us, where are we then?

I'm not 100% behind this thing either, but I want to be realistic about what happens if we vote it down. Go to a road show before you vote...

And guys, I'm not trying to convince anyone to do anything. I'm not a union volunteer. I'm just one guy who has his one vote, who also hopes that everyone will be thoroughly educated before placing their votes, as well. Go to a road show and talk to these guys. If you can't, participate in the conference call that goes along with each road show date.

Hadn't heard about the RECALL RIGHTS RESIGNATION‏ paperwork.

Omni pilot, I agree completely. I think we will see more split lines, possibly even 6 on 4 off with travel on your off days for free. That's potentially 3 days every month of travel for free. That's a pay cut by my math. I much rather drudge through another year or two of negotiations than deal with something worse than the FC EPPH for 5 years followed by another 3 years of negotiations on top of that. I will be voting no as well.

IP, The negotiators will probably hand over the reigns to someone else or will have a lot more assistance to ease their workload whether or not this TA passes. I know with all this excitement going on right now quite a few more people are fired up (me included). That's a great thing!!!!

Eric, how has it been since Jeffery has left? Do you miss him? We have had a few guys from Ryan come through here and have educated the group on his ways. I guess he is pulling the same tactics here and people see them coming a mile away.

Thank you! This is exactly what a "pilot group" is all about! Not just looking after the guys you work with within your company ... but also the guys you work with within your SKY!

Thanks again for the support

Obvious disclaimer: I'm an FNG and the questions I ask are honest questions and I'm not trying to flame anyone. Just looking for answers.

First off, my thanks to the Negotiating Committee for their time and efforts. It's not an easy task and it is a thankless job, and no matter what TA they came back with, there will be some people complaining about it. As a former active ALPA volunteer at my previous airline, I know the hard work that goes into this and I applaud their effort and sacrifice for this pilot group.

I did listen to the conference call last night and it was somewhat informative. I'm hoping to go to one of the roadshows in ATL or DFW next week.

1. If we are to assume the SEoceancrosser is correct and they do use more split lines just to get some extra free travel days out of the pilot group, wouldn't that also increase their costs and be counterintuitive? So, on a typical 18 day pairing, they pay for 2 commercial flights (one from the home airport and one back to it). If they split it, now they are paying 4 airfares. Wouldn't it behoove them to just keep as many 18 day lines as possible?

2. The new contract provides some pretty significant job protection provisions. It pretty much prohibits the company from forming an "Omni Air Lite". As it stands now, they can essentially just close up shop today and re-open tomorrow using the same equipment under a different name. (I realize I may have over simplified this point, but hopefully you catch my drift.) Also, in the event of any type of corporate transaction, where either the company buys another carrier or another carrier buys Omni, the IBT merger policy must be enforced if both pilot groups are represented by the IBT, otherwise Allegheny-Mohawk applies. This is far better than what we have today.

3. Today, we are at will employees. So while on probation you can be fired for any reason and when off probation you can be fired for no reason. Under the new contract, the grievance process is avaliable and the SBA (arbitration) process is also avaliable.

4. Insurance premimums seem to have gone down slightly, which is good. Paying less for mediocre insurance is a good thing, right?

5. Pay rates seem half way reasonable. Granted, some of the pay raises may go toward paying for fuel and long term parking fees under the new "Gateway Airport" concept, minimizing the pay raise.

Thanks again to the Negotiating Committee and I hope that everyone makes an informed decision when they vote for this contract. At a minimum, every pilot here should at least listen to the conference call if they can't go to a roadshow.

I'll probably catch some crap for saying this, however, based on what I know about the negotiating process and the RLA, this isn't terribly horrible (is that considered a double negative? If so, I apologize to my 10th grade English teacher, Mrs. Delk) for a first contract.

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