ASA / Expressjet merge pilot groups?
#111
How's this, I DON'T CARE if im replaced because I am making a fair wage and have better work rules. I would rather fight for that and go out on top. I say this in almost every thread, what is wrong with you people? Why are you so quick to spend so much time on the road and get paid siht just to upgrade and get to a major. What are you sacrificing for? Let me clue you in, ITS NOT WORTH IT.
#112
It does end. It ends when your company is replaced by a cheaper one. When they want cheaper feed, they will replace your carrier with a cheap one. The main reason ASA, Comair and even Eagle are more costly is the highly senior work force. But don't think that just demanding they raise ticket prices to better compensate us regional peon will make that happen. I will guarantee you one thing, if ASA/XJT got big raises and costly QOL enhancements....they will be replaced by Mesa, GoJets, Colgan, etc in a heartbeat! It's not what you want or think you are worth.....it's what the market will bear!
I don't know what is wrong with people. Why do some want to continue down this path? I cannot answer that question because I don't have a clue.
Last edited by PeezDog; 05-07-2011 at 02:25 PM. Reason: added a quote
#113
Quick little addition to this thread. The main conflict here is that the ASA pilot group is coming down on the XJT Pilot group for holding their ground on not taking concessions.
Something to think about though. What if it were a little bit different. Say, MAG purchased ASA or the old Colgan bought ASA. I highly doubt the pilot group at ASA would be so welcoming to the new contract they would find themselves falling under. Just a different perspective. I don't blame the pilot group at XJT at all. I can imagine what it's like being in that position.
Something to think about though. What if it were a little bit different. Say, MAG purchased ASA or the old Colgan bought ASA. I highly doubt the pilot group at ASA would be so welcoming to the new contract they would find themselves falling under. Just a different perspective. I don't blame the pilot group at XJT at all. I can imagine what it's like being in that position.
#114
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2006
Position: DD->DH->RU/XE soon to be EV
Posts: 3,732
Quick little addition to this thread. The main conflict here is that the ASA pilot group is coming down on the XJT Pilot group for holding their ground on not taking concessions.
Something to think about though. What if it were a little bit different. Say, MAG purchased ASA or the old Colgan bought ASA. I highly doubt the pilot group at ASA would be so welcoming to the new contract they would find themselves falling under. Just a different perspective. I don't blame the pilot group at XJT at all. I can imagine what it's like being in that position.
Something to think about though. What if it were a little bit different. Say, MAG purchased ASA or the old Colgan bought ASA. I highly doubt the pilot group at ASA would be so welcoming to the new contract they would find themselves falling under. Just a different perspective. I don't blame the pilot group at XJT at all. I can imagine what it's like being in that position.
Thank you for "getting it", again.
#115
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2006
Position: DD->DH->RU/XE soon to be EV
Posts: 3,732
It's in the PBS LOA, which you have access to. No sense repeating it here.
Although I am not in any way involved with the PBS committee, I do know that unstacking has yet to be used. It probably won't be with the exception of maybe December, and probably only for trips touching Christmas.
But, I doubt it will be used even then. Most people know how to bid, it seems.
Although I am not in any way involved with the PBS committee, I do know that unstacking has yet to be used. It probably won't be with the exception of maybe December, and probably only for trips touching Christmas.
But, I doubt it will be used even then. Most people know how to bid, it seems.
What Happened This Week
This week began as any other award week. We started running the captain awards as soon as the bids closed and the company could finalize the files. After almost three full days of running and examining the results for hundreds of runs, we went to meet with the company to reach agreement on captain runs. Our LOA 11 defines the calendar where the captain and first officer runs must be agreed to by 1200 on the 20th or we use the coin flip procedure. We came up with a calendar to split the captain and first officer runs because of the “No-Fly” list and the tagging of line check pilot trips. This worked well for the May awards. We have to have the captains agreed to and loaded before we can get realistic results from the first officer runs. This split calendar allows us to get the captain runs agreed to and then work on the first officers for an equal amount of time.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen. When we met with the company, we were very disappointed. The runs the company produced had used Unstacking or Ignore Crewmember Requests in an effort to reduce open time. Some of them did not comply with contractual limits and it was a very frustrating meeting.
The focus of the discussion was that the company felt we were not using all the tools available to achieve the desired result. Our position was that they were trying to use a sledge hammer when they really needed tack hammer. One area of major contention was how unstacking is to be used. Their wish was to unstack 75% of the month up to the contract limit of 30% of line holders. This was unacceptable to us.
This is not what Unstacking was intended for. Unstacking was agreed to in the LOA in order to address a stack of open time caused by a holiday or particular weekend, not to force flying on to pilots because there simply aren’t enough pilots to fly the schedule. We made our position clear and although the company disagrees, we will not accept the use of unstacking to address staffing issues. There are appropriate applications of unstacking and it may have to be used in those situations.
They also used Ignore Crewmember Requests in some runs. Ignore crewmember request will ignore a pilots PCT. This forces the system to attempt to build your line up to the TLV. This is supposed to be used as a last resort, not a common tool used every month. We felt that our bid runs, all without ignoring and unstacking, accomplished almost the same result without impacting bids. We did accept one of their runs that did not include ignore or unstack.
The company’s recurring issue each month is less open time and more reserves. They would like to see 15% reserves with 0-2% open time. We would all like to see this. The only way to get less open time AND keep the reserves at 15% is to have more pilots flying.
This week began as any other award week. We started running the captain awards as soon as the bids closed and the company could finalize the files. After almost three full days of running and examining the results for hundreds of runs, we went to meet with the company to reach agreement on captain runs. Our LOA 11 defines the calendar where the captain and first officer runs must be agreed to by 1200 on the 20th or we use the coin flip procedure. We came up with a calendar to split the captain and first officer runs because of the “No-Fly” list and the tagging of line check pilot trips. This worked well for the May awards. We have to have the captains agreed to and loaded before we can get realistic results from the first officer runs. This split calendar allows us to get the captain runs agreed to and then work on the first officers for an equal amount of time.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen. When we met with the company, we were very disappointed. The runs the company produced had used Unstacking or Ignore Crewmember Requests in an effort to reduce open time. Some of them did not comply with contractual limits and it was a very frustrating meeting.
The focus of the discussion was that the company felt we were not using all the tools available to achieve the desired result. Our position was that they were trying to use a sledge hammer when they really needed tack hammer. One area of major contention was how unstacking is to be used. Their wish was to unstack 75% of the month up to the contract limit of 30% of line holders. This was unacceptable to us.
This is not what Unstacking was intended for. Unstacking was agreed to in the LOA in order to address a stack of open time caused by a holiday or particular weekend, not to force flying on to pilots because there simply aren’t enough pilots to fly the schedule. We made our position clear and although the company disagrees, we will not accept the use of unstacking to address staffing issues. There are appropriate applications of unstacking and it may have to be used in those situations.
They also used Ignore Crewmember Requests in some runs. Ignore crewmember request will ignore a pilots PCT. This forces the system to attempt to build your line up to the TLV. This is supposed to be used as a last resort, not a common tool used every month. We felt that our bid runs, all without ignoring and unstacking, accomplished almost the same result without impacting bids. We did accept one of their runs that did not include ignore or unstack.
The company’s recurring issue each month is less open time and more reserves. They would like to see 15% reserves with 0-2% open time. We would all like to see this. The only way to get less open time AND keep the reserves at 15% is to have more pilots flying.
#117
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2011
Posts: 784
Most of the ASA guys seem to have no sack and will roll over at the drop of a dime. I thought the Xjt pilots were pretty weak, and I'm one of them, but the ASA guys always mention not wanting more money because the company will be underbid. Most of the ExpressJet pilots are ****ed off beyond belief and are sick of the bs being fed to us by the company. I would rather lose my job than take another pay cut or get a crappy contract but you ASA guys seem more than willing to let mgmt walk all over you. I'm afraid we are in for a long and painful integration.
#118
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2007
Posts: 235
#119
Kudos to the MEC for standing strong given some of the their other stances on things. But I believe the point he was getting at was that management was pushing the envelope/boundaries. It's just a matter of time before they get it.
#120
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: ASA FO
Posts: 139
Most of the ASA guys seem to have no sack and will roll over at the drop of a dime. I thought the Xjt pilots were pretty weak, and I'm one of them, but the ASA guys always mention not wanting more money because the company will be underbid. Most of the ExpressJet pilots are ****ed off beyond belief and are sick of the bs being fed to us by the company. I would rather lose my job than take another pay cut or get a crappy contract but you ASA guys seem more than willing to let mgmt walk all over you. I'm afraid we are in for a long and painful integration.
The XJet people seem to have unrealistic expectations for ASA.
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