So Crew Resources is now an arm of the company's negotiating team. Can we use the Fuel Hedging guys to help us negotiate? Lot's of money left on the table if they called in sick.

 

You know what they need to do to quell everyone's angst? Is publish the age of all the people calling in sick, and then run the statistics against any other company that has the same age demographic. And if statistically there is truly a bump in Delta sick usage as compared to all the other companies out there that have the same age demographic, then they would have a leg to stand on. This of course would have to take into account only the sick call itself. And not the drop of a whole trip etc. etc.
I remember in the Air Force, they had this whole thing on sexual-harassment. They beat us over the head and said that the Air Force is awful right now, we even got spoken down to buy some 28-year-old lady from the state telling us how bad we all were as men. And then with a little research we found out that the USAF was right on par with the national average regarding the age of people and amount of instances of sexual abuse.

 

The sick leave usage spikes according to the company comes immediately after the actual holidays in question, which MAY suggest that some who have worked on the holiday want to get a little time off after.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but it does seem that the company would save itself a lot of grief by just paying premium pay for holidays worked like everyone else. Premium pay cost vs. sick leave usage cost + man hours exerted by crew resources, CPOs et al to address the "issue" would almost be a wash. Problem solved.

 

Actually, the graphs show sick call ins spiking just before and just after the actual holidays. Makes sense more people call in sick before the holiday... someone else gets the trip either WS/RES/GS. Those folks would be a lot less likely to call in sick on the actual holiday. Your notion of WHY they call in sick in AFTER the holiday... makes sense as well. I'd like to see the secret graphs that include verified/non-verified/age. Considering our average age and what we do for a living I don't think we do too bad. Comparing us to other companies where pilots "bank" unused sick time is an apple vs anvil comparison. People are probably flying sick a lot more often at those companies. Of course, no one tries to track that issue because the trip is covered. OFG

 

Yes they do remain active ALPA members, with Agency Shop, if they want to be on our seniority list, they pay dues. In fact, back in the days before Agency Shop, when anyone could drop out of ALPA and get a 2% pay raise, all Chief Pilots were required to be ALPA members.

I don't know why, I think it was because DALPA Members would say it was a 'conflict of interest' if the CP was a non-member and about to discipline them.

I do know I talked to a couple CP's and they told me they were told it was a requirement of the job. Not sure about the 4th floor cubicle captains.

Now, at that time (pre 1991) we had a LOT of non-members, (800+)mostly they were North East and Western pilots who were PO'd about the seniority list. When the Pan Am merger was announced, DALPA knew they would have a lot more non-members in the PA pilots, so they got the company to agree to Agency Shop, and we've had it ever since.

As soon as Agency Shop kicked in and the non-members had to start paying a 'contract administration fee' equal to just about the same amount as the dues, a group of PO'd non-members started a drive to replace DALPA with another in house union, called the Professional Pilot's Association, or PPA for short. I had the fun of flying with one of their founding members for months at a time.....

He even told me I couldn't wear my "No B Scale" tie tack!

 

Really? Hopefully you are one of the folks that didn't care enough to fill out the latest contract survey ....

 

The ultimate conflict of interest was when Dwayne Werthless was President of ALPA and on the BOD of NWA.

 

Just received from DALPA:

 

Nor did they interview the 30 - 40 year olds with 2 in daycare bringing home EVERYTHING

 

I'd like them to publish the de-identified top 10 abuse stories.

The charts are too generic.

I'm bagging well north to 200K a year, am trusted with the lives of over a thousand passengers a week, but have to behave like a Walmart stockboy when I see the doctor. I am not going to willingly make this situation any more degrading.

48 million extra a year is a business expense.