3EngineTaxi

Nothing wrong with voting no. Sometimes a no vote is best.

Aviatrx

I agree with that. It has worked in our favor in the past. Saying no to this settlement would not have hurried pay raises and reserve, it would have taken us down the long and often fruitless arbitration road

BingoFuel69

Well aren't you gods gift to aviation.

https://www.youtube.com/user/aviatorchavez

Im just gonna put that there ^^

llws

Put that there why?

copycopy

It certainly has been cathartic to vote no on many issues, however I fail to see how it has worked out for us on many occasions. Granted, I haven't been here as long as some, but when the MEC voted no to the "B Scale" in 2013 our fleet plan went to PSA, when we voted no in 2014 20 175s went to compass and we lost half of our pilots, and we ultimately ending up with a worse deal in the end of 2014 because the pilot group got scared and ended up ratifying. The MEC has voted no on several reserve passes, and we still have the same non-117-compliant reserve system. So, while a no vote can send a message, it hasn't entirely worked out for us. Maybe I'm forgetting something or a time that it has worked out for us, but unfortunately our no votes haven't progressed us as much as led us down a path to worse deals. Also, to be clear, I was not in favor of voting for any of those deals at the time, and I voted no in December of 2014 as well (I thought the idea was to keep voting no until we got improvements, but a majority of the pilots changed their minds on that one).

In this instance I think ratifying this deal was a good thing for almost every pilot on property. These LOAs don't affect the lifers, and there are the few pilots trying to hide out on reserve who will be affected (although newer pilots can still hang out on reserve until they get to 800 hours, which is a long time), but overall these LOAs have yielded benefits to the vast majority of pilots. For those after the protected pilots, they are actually benefiting the most from the flow improvements, more so than the protected pilots will because those junior will get the full benefit.

Hopefully the company will be willing to work on other issues, perhaps actually proposing an improvement to the reserve system worthy of a resounding yes rather than trying to find the 51% yes situation. If they were to fix reserve it would work as a recruiting tool for them as well, so it is a little mind boggling that they haven't improved reserve yet, especially considering the direct entry captains who will be stuck on reserve for years.

ParkingatMIA

If this LOA really only affects such a small group of FOs I don’t understand what the benefit in passing it really was. They are going to have to start flying more of the FOs that have under 800 hours once the 30 or so affected FOs get displaced.

Pedro4President

It only negatively effects a small group of pilots. It has widespread benefits for all pilots. Although some pilots benefit more than others. Lifers will benefit by increased line quality if we can grow ORD and DFW. Junior FOs will have more attrition off the top of the list. More CAs means more lines and more flying for FOs to reach 1000 hours quicker. CAs flow quicker. EVERYONE flows quicker. I don't see how people can't see the positives of this LOA as well as the negatives.

NoValueAviator

People keep saying 30 FOs and maybe that's about right for how many are truly "hiding out on reserve," but I think there are probably 100+ mid '16 FO's dragging their feet a little, and I think more than anyone realizes are doing it because they're afraid of the crappy jet, rather than because they don't want the bum base. I only see upsides w/ giving the company earlier access to those pilots.

f16jetmech

I am one of these also. I got out when AMR went into BK. I also couldn't feed my family on 20k. But I'm back! Call me whatever you want... But I needed 60k+ to put a roof over my families heads and a meal on the table.

SoFloFlyer

That’s what you call “taking care of business.”