One problem (among many) with the increased productivity that has gone through the roof over the last decade (and apparently is headed further up with this stinky proposal), if you want QOL there are few ways to achieve it.

We have failed to nail down a min reserve staffing that actually allows guys to get days off when they really want/need them consistently.

If all ya'll want to fly until you get sick, ruin your health or slump over the controls that fine, as long as you are doing it on a voluntary basis.

Forcing pilots to work more and more hours and be away from their families without any choice is complete crap.

If the company is going to get a fraction of all their so called "needs" then there must be a reliably consistent way for pilots to reduce hours and drop time (unpaid is fine) without chasing their tail hoping the company didn't under staff their category.

 

Yep. Pay and credit needs to come up significantly for vacation. We are at the bottom of the industry at this point (as well as with the failed TA2015).

 

Yes - flexibility is the key to a successful long career, sometimes you want to work hard for every penny, then life changes in an instant and you suddenly need more time off to take care of loved one. Richard Anderson chafed at not having each and every reserve chained to the yoke(stick) the whole month. They want maximum performance productivity units, we demand flexible scheduling options.

"Protect Essential!" ...scheduling options, that is. (-727 joke for you young 'uns)

 

Vacation and training need to be pay and credit.

 

Preach on!

 

....................../.

 

Lots has happened since last yer: fed ex, UAL, ups. The price of poker has gone up.

Not directed at you--for years the Moakists, Tsquare, herk, falcon 7's former screen name, etc...claimed they couldn't do better because no one else was raising the bar.

You can sense their panic and angst now that they can't use that as an excuse anymore.

 

I don't think there's any question the latest agreements should play a big factor in our negotiations. They are recent. You seem to be giving up on the current group getting us a great deal. I guess that has me scratching my head. There are some obvious "need to be fixed" items in the aips but some good gains in my opinion too. I'm confident I'm going to see some big gains in pay, vacation and work rules and a removal of the bad aip items in the coming weeks. You seem to think it's going to take a ctrl-alt-del? Are any tweaks in the company's favor acceptable if we extract a favorable price?

 

JM and the NC have painted themselves into a corner. The company will come up on rates. Probably significantly. But they have to. But the rates were always going to be there. THey're making a work rule grab that, if not checked, will be disastrous. The gives they're demanding--and JM and the NC are now advocating for--are probably unattainable for them even in BK. But here we are, giving them up. Inconceivable in this environment.

Once the rates are close to industry-leading, and the AIPs are in place, there is nowhere for JM to maneuver. There is no room to come back and ask for "tweaks" (as you call them) vs. the mountain of concessionary horse**** we are currently faced with. The company will say, "here's the money. You already agreed to all this other stuff. When's your vote?"

A "tweak" is changing the sick leave year to our anniversary month in return for removing all verification requirements.

There are not enough "tweaks" in the AIPs. There are too many landscape-altering QOL and job-killing game-changers.

Surely you agree that VBs haven't been properly modeled or what-if'ed by DALPA; SL changes are a pilot-pushing nightmare; PS changes are uncapped, etc. All are all incredibly ill-advised. They are all "we didn't think they'd do that" moments just waiting to happen.

There is nothing to do but flush and regenerate the entire package. Chairman, NC, table position, the works. And/or change CBAs. Malone has staked everything on rates. And here we are, on the verge of NA15v2.

 

PD-
ALPA is taking a huge gamble if they send out a TA with all the concessions contained in those "AIPs" they published. To compensate for all those gives, the pay rates and vacation pay, etc. would have to be stunning to generate a majority yes vote.
"Productivity" is pretty much maxed out. Nobody wants to fly more hours. We are working our butts off already. We're tired.

Having said that--
We can all be bought. Money talks. But if they expect us to accept all these concessions, the price will be EXTREMELY high.
I don't see this management team coming up with that kind of cash. I hope I'm wrong.

The stakes are high. If ALPA loses another contract vote, I believe they will get removed as our collective bargaining agent.