ATL FO rep. He got elected because he said he was going to try and change ALPA. He said he believed in a bottom up organization. So far he has been a puppet for the CVG mafia.

Wow. This is why I've always said that we as a group need to live below our means at all times. Living paycheck to paycheck, especially at 6 figures+ income level, makes someone extremely dependant and unable to walk away from anything, which only weakens our collective position and costs us all money in the long run.

This TA is more money for most of us (unless you get an unverifiable illness in your rolling window that you have to verify, then it could end up being a 100% pay cut) but it comes with some harsh concessions that are completely unwarranted at this time.

I'm also not pie in the sky bullish about the economy and am well aware of the capacity on the way from ME3, LCC's and others, even as legacies try to scrap to gether a percent or two of recently abandoned capacity back in. The dollar and debt bubbles are real and significant, and there are some downright shocking soverign debt land mines out there that we're simply going to be walking over. No way around it.

So maybe profits have peaked. They don't always go up; they can't always go up. But so what. In every scenario short of armageddon we are still going to be profitable. More profitable than the C2K days, and more profitable than the C2012 days. If our profits are cut in half we will still exceed the previously most profitable times in our history by a wide margin. So smooth sailing ahead or a rough ride, there is still absolutely no need for these levels of concessions.

Oh and if the company or the union is even remotely concerned about sustainability, where is the outrage on the ridiculous 5B additional buybacks? If we ever are in another position of dire economic headwinds, which we will be at some point anyway knowing this industry, we will look back at these wasteful do nothing buybacks as our Waterloo. The amount was not only radically excessive, but it was done out of emotion and very very short term and short sighted greed without any regard whatsoever to the economics this industry operates in. It was burned right in front of us just so we couldn't have a small portion of it. Where's the roadshow slides on that?

I'll be commuting from LIT for a while and then probably AUS. 5-7 bunch of mainline stuff to both and aus has some oal. I think it should be doable. Thank you for the insight on your commute. Sounds like you have it wired.

Agree 100%. In today's environment, though, I don't see them doing that. I guess it depends on how well one's category is staffed. A few years ago when we were really fat staffed I could definitely see them sending you home unpaid. I was never too concerned about that as I would take the days off and not look back!

Also remember that technically you don't have to book the jumpseat at all. A nonrev listing accomplishes the same thing, but we all prefer the JS as it's more concrete. In fact, sometimes if the JS for my first flight is already taken I'll just list as a nonrev on it. I'll then book the JS on my backup to help me sleep better. If I get on my first I immediately cancel the JS on my backup. If I don't get on my first as a nonrev, I call CS and advise them of the situation. First question out of their mouth is if I have the JS on my backup and I say yes. No worries.

Email I received was a personal one after I insulted ALPA and him for not representing me. He implied I was in the minority and that he is a strong yes voter because he believes it is in the best interest of our group.

Why do you "hope" that? If you call in sick when you are not, or engage in a work slowdown because you are "mad" what does that say about you?

Wanna get paid like a top notch pro? Then act like one... regardless of what is going on at the negotiating table.

I'm pretty sure that all that he was saying is that he hopes the Delta does not use this pilot group as a scapegoat for its self induced staffing issues. Nobody is suggesting that we don't do our jobs.

Fair enough. I may not see any compelling reason to fly extra (I'm at 42 hrs this month!) but I won't be taxiing at a snails pace, nor calling in sick because I am unhappy with the TA.

We have to be better than that.

I posted this back in September. It was a response to someone asking me to do the survey after I said I wasn't going to do it. I never did the survey as I really don't believe it matters. I cry because a CDO cutout and paybanding are about the only 2 concessions I called out that didn't happen. Withholding trips from first officers is what I didn't think of at the time. Everything else I was right on. I still thought this contract would add more value to us than C2012. Even I was surprised on that one. I also didn't expect our sick leave changes and JV scope to be as bad as they are.

While all the ATL reps must be recalled, Nestor is a special case because of how he campaigned. He campaigned as a scope hawk and agent of change from a new generation. He bitterly complained about being imprisoned at the regionals why we major pilots continued to sell away scope and further his imprisonment. Look at him now. Selling scope. Giving up 25 more 76 seat RJ's to DCI and helping that broken model stay afloat...further imprisoning regional pilots.

I cannot imagine a more shameless hypocrite than Nestor. Why there isn't a recall of him already from every ATL FO is beyond me. Add to that the fact that he's vigorously ENDORSING pulling LCA trips from FO's, and I'm just speechless as to how he's still there.

Carl