I shouldn’t have to volunteer to get a timely resolution. That’s why I pay dues money. Expecting results isn’t a crazy notion. I agree, however, this is caused by delta but if we do not adapt to the changing landscape we WILL lose. I have also volunteered to volunteer and have been turned away. Stop using that as a go to argument, they don’t want volunteers, they just want the ability to complain about it when you call them out.

 

Hmmmmmmm....are they really "volunteers" if the committee need funds to bring them on? I keeed....😁

 

They don’t have time to train new people and that would cost money. They also expect ACE to streamline everything and thus they wouldn’t need as many bodies. That was what I was told.

 

But why are we blaming ALPA for their inability to keep up with the barrage of scheduling violations from the company? They're struggling to fix the problem, not the ones causing it.

 

Because they don’t want to change. The few in power hoarde it and don’t want their fiefdoms challenged by newcomers. ACE was a great idea that allowed the few to stay in charge rather than expanding to more volunteers. It doesn’t work with the company willfully violating everything. They need to adapt again and allow some new blood in.

 

You mean the committee back when we had, what, a fraction of the green slips a month that go out compared with today?

It’s easy to have a 3 or 4 people and a handful of staff when there’s plenty of pilots and everything just percolates along with a couple hundred green slips a month across the whole airline.

ACE has made it so easy to file a report, everyone does it. I flew with one guy who said “yea, I file one everyone month that just says “here’s my schedule, find me money”. I’m sure that doesn’t help the turnaround time.

 

Current data point.

1 JAN. Stuck in NYC, can't commute home. ARCOS calls for 1 day BDA turn GS. I pick it, am #1 when when the window closes. I SCREENSHOT THIS. It's been in OT out of a hub for over 14 hours.

Window closes. No award. I call CS and go WTF. "You are not BDA qualified" (it's not a special qual airport"

They reroute a DTW 320 Captain to do it. I ace it twice. Once for me and once for the DTW Captain. He was the recipient of an illegal reroute, so he should be getting paid. I got paid 8:01 which just showed up on my JAN timecard as 4F1R.

Rough timeline:
Dec 31, shenanigans detected.
Jan 1 ACE Filed
Apr 13 Scheduling committee reviews finds 23N was violated for the DTW Captain and 23.Q.12.a.b.c violated for me and summitted to company.
Apr 21-26 somewhere in there it showed up on my JAN timecard as 8:01 pay and credit

Now, I wait and see an actual pay hit my account, but this is the rough timeline.

That said, ACE works well, and I got the abbreviated history on how it came to be and how it gets improved from the former MEC chair who was there when it was coming into being. It does help keep things moving. The VOLUME is unprecedented. Now how much of that is "it's made it easy to report" and "the company is just going stupid with illegal stuff" is probably 20/80 split but that's just my WAG.

If you are unhappy with turnaround time, they can use volunteers.

In the last year, ACE has gotten me 38:31 at 320A pay, and probably half that to other pilots that I have reported on them doing illegal reroutes, 23M7 etc.

That's over $10,500 not counting PS, 401K, etc. Just gross cash to me.

I'd say ACE is a winner.

 

If pilots are doing that, then those individuals are definitely part of the problem that makes those with legitimate/known issues have to wait longer to be properly compensated. Too damn lazy to keep track if they are being paid properly and willing to detrimentally impact the pilots who are owed compensation.

 

This is such outrageous cow manure. SK IS new blood and one of the most competent people in our union. Tell me you have no idea what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

Maybe they could find the funds by eliminating the breakfast/lunch/happy hour buffets and open bar "hospitality suites" at the MEC meetings, held in vacation spots where we don't have a pilot base...

Maybe they could pare back the number of volunteers who are "rewarded" by being taken to the biennial beachfront/Vegas drink fest at the BOD meeting...

Maybe the commuting MEC chairman could move to where his business actually is, instead of making ALPA pay for his lodging in ATL...

Maybe ask the volunteers to actually VOLUNTEER instead of paying them all full time flight pay loss to miss trips, then letting them pick up GS on off days.

Look, I just found about a million dollars more to fund contract compliance.