The Walrus

Do they serve ham and pineapple pizza?

LJ Driver

Change them to count more or less?

busdriver12

If he's able to change that, I'm sure the crew force would appreciate it greatly. Though many of us have already doled out our once in a blue moon endorsement.

USMCFDX

Blue moon happens once every two to three years - that would be better.

busdriver12

Okay, you got me there.

For many of us, it was our one career endorsement, as we have less than 10 years left. One shot to endorse someone who was amazing ...who turned down the interview because FedEx waited so long to call. People can't wait forever, life goes on.

pinseeker

^^^^^^
This statement is why we will never get the contract we think we deserve.

Why do pilots think that these "pizza meetings" occur? To fix the issues that the crew force sees in the contract and scheduling? No, if the company wanted to fix those items, they would talk to the negotiation committee. The company is simply using a tactic to make it look like they are interested in your issues, while at the same time, measuring crew force resolve and fishing for the minimums we will accept.

There is proven research showing that the number one way for a company to improve moral and keep employees happy is to give them free pizza. The sad thing is, it isn't free. It will cost us in contract 202?.

I don't blame the company, it's good business practice on their part.

Hank Burley

This looks like good news potentially?

Revised Personal Endorsement Program
Mar 20, 2019 • Robin Sebasco
Captain John Hunt and Captain Pat DiMento are both names many of us associate directly with our pilot hiring program. For many years, each had different but also somewhat similar roles as we built our crew force in the 1990-2005 timeframe. Effective immediately, both will be returned to the process to manage a revised Endorsement program that provides more clarity in the selection of candidates for interview. Their involvement will provide some much needed relief to our very busy pilot hiring team.
The most significant change is increasing the number of endorsement opportunities for our crewmembers. Many of you believed the one in ten year limit was too restrictive and we heard you. Other changes, described below, will give the crew force insight into what information is most important to the selection process.
The revised Endorsement process contains the following new elements.
Legacy Endorsement. Created to assure the children of our active and retired pilots are given the appropriate consideration. Enough said.
Management Endorsement. Created to allow Pilot Senior Managers (e.g., Fleet Captains) and Managing Directors in Air Operations the ability to highlight candidates they feel would be an asset to our operation.
Professional Endorsement. The endorser has first-hand knowledge of the candidate’s aviation skills and employment related skills from serving in the military together or having been a co-worker of the applicant.
Personal Endorsement. The endorsing pilot’s knowledge of the candidate is based on a social or personal relationship.
The above list is in order of priority. Each month the Fleet Captains will review Endorsements and forward their selections to Captain Hunt, who will provide the names to the pilot hiring office for further evaluation.
For the Management Endorsement, we have 13 eligible managers in Air Operations, to include Flight Ops, Flight Training and Safety who will each have the opportunity to endorse one candidate per year.
For Professional and Personal Endorsements, more than one of either type ranks higher than one of either, Said another way, the more the better. There are some significant changes here for our line pilots, whose opinion about the suitability of our future pilots is vital to the process. The major changes, effective immediately, are:
All timelines related to Personal or Professional Endorsements are reset.
The 10 year Personal Endorsement program is rescinded.
Any non-probationary pilot who has not received formal discipline in the previous five-year period may provide a Personal or Professional Endorsement effective immediately.
Subsequent Endorsements: An eligible pilot may now provide a Personal or Professional Endorsement 12 months after his/her previously endorsed pilot completes probation.
If an endorsed applicant was never called, was unavailable when called, has accepted employment elsewhere, or fails to advance through our interview process, the pilot can submit another name 24 months after the date of the previous endorsement.
Current Endorsements should be left in place unless the pilot wishes to change the name. If so, you can do that immediately.
Importantly, all endorsed candidates must still meet all basic and competitive qualifications before being called for an interview.
While Captain Hunt manages the Endorsements, Captain DiMento will now be the sole point of contact for crew members who want to endorse a candidate. Once a pilot is ready to provide a Personal or Professional Endorsement, he or she should contact Pat to determine whether their applicant meets basic minimum qualifications and is eligible for further consideration by the Pass Board. After an endorsement is entered through INSITE, a pilot may check with John to ensure the Endorsement is in the system.
A word about the numbers: We are expecting a large surge of endorsements. At a rate of approximately 450 pilots per year, and with a pilot group of ten times that, this improvement may be slow to become evident.
Please thank John and Pat for stepping up to assist in the effort. And thanks to all of you for providing us your important input in the selection of our future pilots.
Thank you all for your support,
Robin
Captain Robin P Sebasco
System Chief Pilot

FXLAX

It still seems like a long time to wait for another endorsement. Why not being able to endorse someone else after they complete probation; and 12 months after they failed the interview process or didn’t get called, whichever is later?

Magenta Line

I think this is a def improvement on the process and it would appear it was company driven. Further, I am encouraged that there could be some tweaking to the process. When I've spoken to some of the guys in the cubicles they've expressed their displeasure/disappointment with the process including total disregard for any current company seniority holder input -- I don't think there's a single pilot that liked HR (and specifically the labor attorney who was in charge of hiring...) running the entire hiring show.

Having said that, I would be interested if there were any other forces/variables/metrics, etc... that may have contributed to this change. There was a bubble some years ago of guys that were hired that spiked the number of discipline cases for a given hire group. "Hmmm??!?!.... interesting"... I opined, but I never heard anything of it, other than it was definitely a definable group that got hired during a specific period.

123456

I think this is a great improvement. Every 2 years vs every 10 years is a big difference. Not saying it couldn't be better, but I see their point where it still offers some type of accountability/seriousness of who you want to endorse vs being able to endorse however many/whomever you want with no time constraint. I do like the added priority order also. I know many guys that have been here a long time whose sons/daughters can't seem to get the call and looks like this will help them with that.