I've always liked the idea of a MALPA as well. I think we're a lot better together than we would be on our own. Might even attract an AA or a SWA down the road. We'd be a powerful force.

Not sure if regionals sueing to abolish exclusive contracts would ever have merit. They are after all, outsourced labor, flying our companies customers. And...we'd have plenty of money relative to them to fight off any attempt.

That said, the last thing I'd want to do is take food out of the mouths of people already making little in many cases. I just think it's in the best interest of all of us to work toward minimizing regional flying and bringing more jobs back to mainline.

 

All makes sense.

With respect to the middle part, I haven't given a lot of thought, but I wasn't thinking lawsuits. I was thinking something like the wrong mood in congress, an unsympathetic Supreme Court... one group makes a play to change the laws relative to exclusive contracts, backed up by industry lobby. Who knows? What made wonder was airlines in Europe, like Aer Lingus doing wet-lease stuff for Virgin Atlantic, for example. Those guys have unions, and they have contracts. I don't know if they have Scope, but it doesn't seem like they have Scope the way we understand it. Hell, I was once told that Air France has seven pilot unions. How does that work?

I could be off the reservation completely on this one. I just remember I came from a regional, and it was a crap regional. We brought in ALPA just as I started. We kept slugging it out with the company, but the thought never once occurred to us to make a direct play for the major's flying. Just droning along, going deaf on PT-6 noise, and hoping, one day, to escape.

I didn't really think we were screwing the Delta guys by having access to Aeromedical. I just wanted to be there (here), and for the majors to shut down the regional loophell we were living in.

 

Scheduling Question

If I do a personal drop for a trip NOT an authorized PD can I white slip a different trip that touches those days.

 

99% sure you cannot.

 

I'm 99% sure you CAN.

To satisfy that 1% chance, call ALPA tomorrow. You're paying for tr service and they can answer that in about 2 seconds. Alternatively your rep may be able to give you a quick answer if you're wanting to get in before the 2200E or 0700E PCS runs.

 

Did it a couple times last month. You can.

 

Sink. Thanks for the answer, I ended up looking in the contract and talking to scheduling. You can do a PD and white slip as a regular pilot. You can not do an APD and WS.

Who thought reading the contract could teach you something.

 

As a regular pilot you can be awarded a WS, GS, and IA on a day which you got a PD. You cannot be awarded anything if it was an APD.

As a reserve guy you cannot be awarded a GS, YS, or IA on a day which you got a PD or an APD.

 

A sneaky workaround to the APD is to request the APD on only 1 day of a trip. That will drop the entire trip but only the day you requested the APD will be coded as an APD. You can then be awarded a WS or GS on the other days of the trip that were dropped but not coded as an APD.

 

I'm 100% with you on that. That's why MALPA is such a great idea. It's going to take a collective effort of all large carriers to reign in outsourcing. No one carrier can be at a competitive disadvantage but together we can come up with universal language for the road to reclaiming mainline flying.