You don’t have to believe me. You can look at the union scope reports and or read our contract. The flying to Mexico has not decreased. I guess however you will take the word of a flight attendant over your union.

Huh? Someone is going to hold that line you didn't get when you took the month off.

I think voluntary SILs are a net benefit to the Pilot group as a whole but if the company blows off our PWA then DALPA is correct in pulling them down.

As I said RCC inputs have always basically been requests, not really inputs, but if they have sufficient manning to honor them but still don’t, then by all means shut them down.

Scoop

No, they would have held a line instead of reserve IF we still had SILs.

We pulled them down (for good reason), so I will be flying a line in September. Someone junior to me could have had a line instead of reserve if I was at home on a SIL instead of flying 75 hours in Sept. The point is that SILs aren't automatically bad for pilots on reserve. Some of them would be lineholders instead of reserve, because pilots senior to them are out on a SIL.

Absolutely correct. The company killed SILs, not DALPA.

In this respect, they're actually pretty useful. If anyone has any question where management's loyalties lie and how much they value the Delta family members, look there.

DALPA says "We're whipped, qol is going down the tubes and pilots have had enough of running on all cylinders without much to show for it. These RCC inputs are how you can give us all a teeny bit of qol back, so we can keep our backpacks on and go get you that JD Power award you covet."

Management says: "Pound sand."

Copy. See you in section 6. Good luck with that sick leave problem, rising fuel costs and the pending training churn.

I think we're saying the same thing. Choice is good for the group. More people who potentially could have had a line when someone senior bid a SIL are stuck on reserve now that we don't have them. I don't really have an opinion on why they were pulled down. I'll have to take the union's word on it.

It would have been interesting to see exactly how the discussion with the company went down over the SILs. I hope our reps acted with a sense of respect and dignity and didn't just walk in making demands "or else". I wonder if a less militant MEC may have been able to pull off the negotiation for improvements to QOL in exchange for keeping SILs alive?

Agree completely. And what was the timeline, did the company come to the MEC and ask for 'permission' to award SILs and the MEC said "nope" and the company just went ahead and awarded them anyway?

Or was the MEC never even consulted before they were awarded?

Something you are neglecting is when there is higher reserve staffing there are many pilots who can hold a line who bid reserve with the idea of getting full pay for not working. Since there were SILs in your category there are likely pilots like that in your category who wouldn't do it if SILs were awarded since reserves would fly more. In fact, lines may very well go more junior without SILs present. The numbers point to SILs being bad for reserves overall, especially since they reduce the number of days off for all the reserves (eliminating the extra X day).