tom14cat14

This is the biggest point about the sick time issue. You are a professional pilot why do they need to treat pilots like school kids. If you say you’re sick you’re sick. Yes some abuse it but even if they go in and say they have a head cold but don’t I would love to see what the Fed's think about forcing a pilot to fly when they say they are sick.

I am not over there yet but it sure seems like this TA is very disrespectful to the pilot group. This shows they are not concerned with a working relationship with the pilots.

BobZ

well....getting rid of it on the next pwa will be worth at least a net 2% reduction in compensation cost for the company

gloopy

The tiny number of pilots in that seniority range that snuck into the plug spots of a new category are an anamoly. Its an extremely senior airplane and even in a junior base, it only went to that level because no one wanted to be the plug (or even plug +1 or 2) in the first few months after it opened. That is about to change big time. There may or may not be one more AE where they go to anywhere near that level of juniority, but 2014 hires will in no way continue to be "able to hold 330B" for years after the dust settles on this little one off.

Bid what you want and if you get it, great! But I wouldn't be using that extremely rare and short lived one off as a baseline for planning anything in your life for years at least. Those few pilots are an extremely small anomaly.

Also keep in mind that there are always pilots returning from med/mil leave and other internal landlubber gigs that can pounce on anything they can "hold" as well. The company can't be liking the 330B being that unior, as it instantly raises a lot of people's salary by quite a bit just because 2 or 3 guys are sitting in that seat. Its likely that as soon as the seniority settles in that category they will easily displace 2 or 3 pilots instead of paying every instructor/FOM/etc 330 pay instead of ER pay. 3 displacements will be WAY cheaper than a significant raise for a lot of pilots. All they need is 2 or 3 pilots coming off leave to pick it, or perhaps a couple pilots from the 74 and/or rumored CVG displacements to pick it and boom, 2014 can't "hold' it anymore, and the current plugs in it would be bounced as well.

Again, more power to anyone in any seat they want and can get on any given AE! But I wouldn't plan anything on that example.

TED74

I'm starting to understand why the company has a legitimate concern about sick leave. There are a lot of abusers...I'm not one of them, so this TA shouldn't affect me and as a business-minded person, I expect the company to do what they can to rein in the 5%. That's just the cost of doing business and maximizing profits!

...Have you heard any YES-voting fools spewing that NONSENSE?! The next time you hear some idiot say anything like that you should either just punch him in the Jimmy or throw him off the crew bus at a high rate of speed.*

We don't have a sick leave problem, we have a staffing problem that the COMPANY created. As an example, take a look at ER B reserve levels in DTW and NYC for the rest of the month. 0 AVAILABLE (except for one dude in NYC on July 1st).

So, when the company has some jack bag call in sick when he's not, they might just have to cancel a flight. Sounds irritating. I'd be frustrated. But they have to do the SAME THING every time a non-jack bag (who outnumber the jack bags at least 10 to 1) calls in ACTUALLY sick when legitimately unable to safely and or legally fly hundreds of people across the pond. WOULD THEY WANT HIM TO DO OTHERWISE? ARE THEY STAFFED TO HANDLE THE RIGHT THING TO DO?

So why are we here? Because the company eff'd up their hiring and training forecast BIGTIME (ignored our input, really). They maximized short-term profits at the expense of being properly staffed. They can't turn down "network" flying, despite not being manned to handle it all.

Now, if they want to continue to maximize short-term profits and have willing pilots who want greenies pick up the slack (or most of it)...go for it. But they should do so knowing full well the risks they take and quit blaming a scape goat. IMAGINE the pickle the company would be in if pilots STOPPED picking up green slips abd they had to solve their self-induced problems themselves. WE HAVE THE STRONGER BARGAINING POSITION, BY FAR!!!

Every one of you newbies SHOULD have an additional year of Delta employment under your belt. Everyone one of you almost-holding-a-line peeps should have had one for a year. Take it as far as you'd like...12,800 of us (and 1,000 more) would ALL being doing better if hiring happened as it should have. How about THAT for time value of money???

Don't pay the price for management's own business decisions. Keep your sick leave as it is...better yet, IMPROVE IT!

VOTE NO, STATUS QUO!!!

*I don't literally advocate violence...

BobZ

yeah....that's what I said ......its all about staffing.

Im still confused....if a pilots at widget airlines have a contractual allocation of 100 hrs of sick time each year....and said pilots at widget airlies each use 100 hrs of sick time each year.......are aforementioned said pilots hereby guilty of the despicable charge of sick leave abuse?

If so, it should be therefore and hitherto ascertained what adequacy of sick leave is essential to the aforementioned said pilots, in the general, and not military sense,....so as to allocate thresholds of sick leave that will not precipitate the characterization of said pilots with such salacious charges.

I will let the English prof chew on that.........

PS McFry......vacation abuse is next......

Flamer

Agreed. "Sick leave abusers" are a red herring. This is about pilot productivity. If the fear of reprisal lowers the average pilot's sick usage by .5 hours a month, mission accomplished by the Co. They are also pushing in a few other areas I won't mention here, but needless to say the squeeze is on. Fly more each year(TLV) while being sick less. We are being owned.

Flyallnite originally posted this:
"Our predicament will be this if we continue to sell our protections for pay: You will be beholden to fly a lot more, with less control of your schedule and your life in order to make a living. Verifying your sick leave may become such a hassle that you may just decide to fly sick (or not well) instead of dealing with the paper chase. But it's not just sick leave.

If we are not careful, they'll have us in the trick bag. The last thing they'll come for is the money. Once they get us strapped to the wheel, then they come for the compensation and we can do nothing to stop it because of: Sick leave, Joint Ventures, Scope, Recovery Compacts, Staffing Requirements and so on. In other words, when they come for the money and you decide you want a day off or want to start pursuing other avenues of work, forget it. We Own You.

Don't get Owned. That's the game we need to be playing."

David Puddy

Why would anyone vote for these MEC dorks again???? Jimmy Hoffa would be proud of most of them. Vote them OUT!

BobZ

Here, here, now.....That's Mr. Dorks to you buddy...

forgot to bid

From everyone's favorite council, C44:

June*2, 2015


Work Rules

Our overall quality of life at Delta Air Lines is determined in large part by our work rules. Next to pay, work rules are a top issue for Delta pilots, and the tentative agreement we have before us contains significant changes that will directly affect our quality of life.

This tentative agreement improves two major quality of life issues for Atlanta pilots: reroute and trip mix. We acknowledge that some compromise was required in order to obtain the improved work rules for all pilots, first officers and captains alike, specifically with regard to OE rotation awards for first officers. Below we will discuss some of the major changes, and offer a scorecard for the work rule changes.

Reroute:C44 pilots have let us know loud and clear that reroutes often unfairly compromise their seniority, and adversely affect their quality of life. Under our current language, Delta does not pay a pilot premium pay for “circumstances beyond the company’s control,” and mechanical issues were among a list of examples of these circumstances. This TA eliminates the mechanical exception to a premium pay award. In summary, only items such as weather or airport closures will be considered a circumstance of which the company has no control going forward.

Additionally, if our pilots ratify this tentative agreement, a rerouted rotation must end no later than 4 hours after its originally scheduled return or the company must pay the affected pilot premium pay for the extended duty period. Under the present PWA the company must only return you within 4 hours after the rotation was originally scheduled to end, or on the same calendar day, whichever is later. For international rotations the trigger for premium pay has moved from 30 hours to 25 hours.

These improvements, along with the MEC Grievance 14-13 settlement regarding violations of Section 23 L.4, which reads: "Note: An uncovered flight segment(s) will be placed in open time if, in doing so, the resulting rotation reports 14 or more hours from the time the flight segment(s) first became uncovered,”result in significantly tighter reroute language, which would trigger premium pay for rerouted pilots, and theoretically drive a reduction in reroutes. This is the added benefit, and the reason work rules are in place to begin with. The extra money involved drives the company to look for solutions other than pilot reroutes to solve scheduling problems. Delta’s scheduling software seeks the low-cost solution, which might be a green slip, white slip, yellow slip or reserve call out.

Rotation Construction and Trip Mix: Another major issue for C44 pilots is the seasonal loss of 1, 2, and 3-day trips as a result of Delta’s need to reduce credit time in order to stay within TLV constraints. TLV constraints are pushed to the limit due to increased flying and tighter staffing. Additionally, FAR 117 compliance has led to reports of an overall deterioration in the quality of rotations during pre-month bidding.

Under our current contract Delta’s Crew Resources and Scheduling department has often disregarded the Rotation Construction Committee’s recommended inputs to improve the trip mix and quality of the rotations.**Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) 15-02 is a one-year test program included in this tentative agreement that gives the Rotation Construction Committee the necessary credit time and authority to build better quality rotations of various lengths for all pilots during pre-month bidding by raising the TLV to 81 (from 80). The improved quality and variety of the rotations in the bid package for all captains and first officers was a major goal for C44 pilots as expressed in a C44 resolution. Even with a TLV of 81 hours, we remain well below other airlines in this parameter.

This MOU is a test. Should the increase in TLV not provide the needed trip mix and quality, the entire MOU may be rescinded or not extended by ALPA, which would reduce the TLV once again to 80.

Scheduling Flexibility: Pilots also expressed a desire to have the ability to adjust their schedules to their own personal needs. Individual Vacation Days (IVDs) and an increased ability to swap and drop rotations due to the new “reserves required” formula in open time will give Delta pilots much greater control and ability to adjust their monthly schedule to fit their personal needs. Additionally, the improved transparency in the vacation move-up process, contained in this tentative agreement, will help Delta pilots manage their vacation weeks more effectively.

Rotations Withheld from PBS Award When Designated for OE/TOE: A compromise was the OE trip removal. Up to 75% of the identified OE trips for an individual category can be withheld from first officers in PBS. Trips will first be identified based on the specific hours needed in that category, and first officers will bid in seniority order until 25% of the trips are “bid.” At that point the remaining 75% of identified trips will be withheld for OE training. While we fully acknowledge the effect it will have on some first officers, we also took measures to limit and mitigate the impact, and extracted as much value as possible to achieve your goals for C2015. Here are a few more facts to consider:

OE trips account for less than 2% of first officer trips.
Since some pilots who would have been bought off will now fly something else, the net result*could*be a few more pilots on reserve.

Below is an example of the possible impact on the Atlanta categories using 2014 OE data and based on June 2015 bid awards. The “New Reserve” column reflects the possible net effect:

texavia

Since no one has any confidence, trust or respect left for the regime, I doubt any one will waste their time looking at this.