Originally Posted by CGfalconHerc (Post 1617483)

FTB, thanks for the honest assessment of both sides of the debate. FWIW, I think I can speak for the 1310 DL furloughees, that there wasn't any flying under DL colors that we weren't willing to do.

Originally Posted by JungleBus (Post 1617033)

Sure, here's the short & sweet version.

Pinnacle's bankruptcy, purchase by DL, and the ALPA/DALPA-engineered Delta-jobs-for-concessions deal set off a concessionary round of bargaining in the regional sector. Around the time Richard started bragging that he had "reset" DCI's costs, American Eagle management approached their pilots - less than a year into their own bankruptcy-forced 8-year contract - and demanded that they adopt a B-scale that would freeze pay for newhires. The American Eagle MEC turned it down. Moak wrote a letter to the Eagle pilots that was widely interpreted as disapproval over the MEC turning down the proposal.

American Airlines Group, having secured a bunch more 76-seat outsourcing in BK, was looking for a place to put those jets, so they approached Pacific Southeast Airlines (PSA). PSA management in turn went to their MEC and negotiated a concessions-for-jets deal, which the pilots ratified to the tune of nearly 80%. PSA was awarded 30 CRJ-900s shortly thereafter.

Eagle management went back to their MEC at that point and openly threatened to "Comair" them if they couldn't get concessions. After some debate the MEC voted to negotiate, and eventually narrowly approved an "Agreement in Principle" that called for a 10-year contract with frozen pay the entire time, a slightly enhanced flow-through, and minimum fleet guarantees that were still smaller than their current fleet. The NC set about drafting the specific language.

Meanwhile ExpressJet and ASA - now merged into ExpressJet - were still without a joint contract after a couple years of slow negotiations. The new developments at PSA and Eagle broke the logjam in management's favor, and the MEC approved a joint contract that was rather concessionary on the promise of new AA flying. The pilot group rejected it, 87% against. The MEC resigned. There was an outpouring of anti-ALPA sentiment on the forums. Moak abruptly changed his tune on concessions and started talking up the Fee For Departure group at ALPA, which has been around for years but hasn't done much. PSA refused to participate in the reactivated FFD group.

Meanwhile one of the Eagle MEC reps had been recalled and the anti-concession faction of the MEC was able to bring a few other members over to their views. When the T/A language was drafted, the MEC ended up voting it down 5-4. It was a close-run thing with the deciding vote switching the night before. AE management immediately started suggesting that the MEC was illegitimate and wasn't representing the pilots' wishes, and there was intense pressure from ALPA to allow the pilots to vote. An EVP wrote a letter suggesting the MEC was opening themselves to legal action. Eventually the MEC revoted with 3 voting to send the T/A to pilot ratification and 6 abstaining, thus allowing the vote while demonstrating against it.

While this was going on at Eagle, Republic Airways came to a T/A after 7+ years of stalled negotiations and an extremely outdated contract that was making it hard for them to attract pilots. There was some cloak-and-dagger stuff with the Teamsters Airline Division bypassing the RAH ExCo (ie MEC) and negotiating committee. Still the ExCo sent it to MemRat. That vote was going on concurrently with the Eagle vote.

American Eagle pilots rejected their concessionary T/A with 70% against. Eagle management is now saying they'll shrink the airline to nothing over time, but it's very unclear if there are any regionals that could actually take over any of their flying and be able to staff it.

RAH pilots just voted against their T/A, which did contain some improvements over their decade-old current contract but was generally quite underwhelming and had some really bad scheduling language, with 85% against.

XJT, AE, and RAH contain roughly half of the pilots in the regional industry.

I've never heard as much anti-ALPA talk on the line as the last 3 months or so. It's widely believed that ALPA national was supporting concessions at the regionals, with national officers insisting it was just the regionals' time for concessions. It's my own belief that if Moak isn't kicked out this year and a reform-minded president elected, ALPA will be done as a going concern within a few years. They're poisoning the well with the next generation of mainline pilots. It should be pointed out that APA strongly supported American Eagle pilots' stand and encouraged their members to help AE pilots.

That's the situation in a nutshell. Basically regional pilots have noticed a lot of chickens coming home to roost vis a vis the pilot shortage, and decided the time was right to take a stand.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1617489)

Oh I 100% believe that and I absolutely get what you're saying. RAH and AE have done something that really hasn't been done before and the "why now" is going to have a lot of perspectives.

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 1617384)

They are pulling 777's offline for the EC seat mods, so 777 block hours are down for a few months. They will back fill them once the mods are wrapped up.

Originally Posted by TOGA LK (Post 1617433)

Not required to carry a cell phone or pager. Even if you do who is to say the phone was on or even the ringer was on. I wouldn't worry about it.

Originally Posted by Bobman80 (Post 1617507)

Is it easy to get from the short LGA layover hotel to JFK? Thanks for any info! (Specific hotel name need not be mentioned)

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1617489)

Oh I 100% believe that and I absolutely get what you're saying. RAH and AE have done something that really hasn't been done before and the "why now" is going to have a lot of perspectives.

I still think the ideal situation is to have regionals operating EMB110s and 1900Ds off property and the rest on property.

Originally Posted by Sink r8 (Post 1617486)

How about you calm down on the legal advice, especially to tell people they're violating the rules? The rules are clear that the pilot is responsible for determining whether the 8-hour "sleep opportunity" was interrupted. That's exactly how you want it: THE PILOT MAKES THE DETERMINATION. Not sailing, not Delta. 80 decides if 80's opportunity was interrupted.

Under no circumstance would I file an ASAP or call the CPSC, because 1) no violation has occurred if 80 didn't determine his rest was interrupted, or 2) he determined that the rest was interrupted, in which case he's not covered by an ASAP.

Your premise that anyone who didn't have legal rest AFTER the last robocall is violating FAR's, is flawed. Outbound calls may or may not equate to interruptions. If they did, anyone whose wife or grandmother dials them up, any drunk college friend that accidentally butt-dials them, is violating them.

If you're going to preach something, read the FAR's, and preach the right and responsability of each pilot to determine for themselves whether their sleep opportunity was interrupted.

Originally Posted by Sink r8 (Post 1617486)

How about you calm down on the legal advice, especially to tell people they're violating the rules? The rules are clear that the pilot is responsible for determining whether the 8-hour "sleep opportunity" was interrupted. That's exactly how you want it: THE PILOT MAKES THE DETERMINATION. Not sailing, not Delta. 80 decides if 80's opportunity was interrupted.

Under no circumstance would I file an ASAP or call the CPSC, because 1) no violation has occurred if 80 didn't determine his rest was interrupted, or 2) he determined that the rest was interrupted, in which case he's not covered by an ASAP.

Your premise that anyone who didn't have legal rest AFTER the last robocall is violating FAR's, is flawed. Outbound calls may or may not equate to interruptions. If they did, anyone whose wife or grandmother dials them up, any drunk college friend that accidentally butt-dials them, is violating them.

If you're going to preach something, read the FAR's, and preach the right and responsability of each pilot to determine for themselves whether their sleep opportunity was interrupted.