Why Would Anyone Come to FDX (Cargo) Now?
 

http://www.aircargonews.net/news/air...-aircraft.html

Our unions are too weak to stop this. This legislation was snuck under the radar because the language was included in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee title and wasn't debated within the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The study is to be completed within six months!

If single pilot cargo operations are approved, you can say goodbye to one of the best jobs in aviation.

With that potential risk looming, why would anyone choose FedEx today? We all know why we choose FedEx in the past but times have changed.

Contract 2015 was a disaster. The old folks sold us out. And for some reason, everyone's expectations including the union's is that we will take 2-4 years after this 6-year crap deal to renegotiate another contract. The major airlines will leapfrog us if not once, but twice during this time. Maybe three times if they stick to two-year contracts.

FedEx ALPA is weak. Contract 2015 was a result of that. FedEx pilots are very divided right now. Currently the union is on course to do away with the A-plan in exchange for a plan which puts the investment risk onto the member. The current A-plan/B-plan allows diversification in retirements; protection from company bankruptcy and/or stock market crash. Going forward should our MEC be successful, all of our eggs will be placed in the stock market.

So again I ask, why would new hires even consider coming here? A step up to Delta, AA, or Southwest? Currently we are drawing small numbers of folks away from those airlines. I can't foresee that continuing. There's too much risk involved here. The company will cut our throats and it appears our government is going to help them should this study prove that single-pilot cargo operations are safe. Of course they will determine that to be so.

My two cents.
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I agree, if I was a pilot at UPS, FedEx, Atlas or wherever I would be writing to my Lawmakers, AOPA, ALPA do get them to stop this! Don’t do nothing!

Someone wouldn't want to work at FDX or UPS because of a potential study commissioned by the FAA?

I'd argue that if that were the case, and if they lacked the critical thinking skills to believe that:

- a study that might or might not be commissioned by the FAA,
- the results and recommendations of which are unknown,
- and which results and recommendations may or may not support or lead to some sort of FAA action,
- and which may or may not ever be acted upon by a company,

....would threaten their career, then I could do without them even being a pilot, much less a brown or purple pilot.

Good on ALPA, IPA, and Teamsters for doing their protectionist gig for the profession -- that's what they exist for -- and I wish them all the luck and leverage in the world to kill such a God-awful idea, but so far as how that possible study might impact the actions of individuals looking to get in on cargo jobs, to act on so many layers of "maybe" is just ridiculous.

May as well worry about which city to move to so as to best avoid getting hit by a meteor strike.

Money will determine this study, and by my count, FedEx got a lot, and we got a little. Which is why we lose 90 percent of our contract disputes.

Exactly. By even allowing this study, Pandora's box has been opened. Someone like Bezos is exactly the type of person who would make all of his cargo planes single piloted.

That new CVG hub might not need as many pilots in the near future.

:eek:

The day a single-pilot 7X7 or Airbus A390 cargo jet shows up on property, you guys better be united and all walk off the job until they get rid of that POS. And for d*mn sure I (a non-cargo pilot who works for a major airline) will be there with you all walking the line.

And I mean united together as an entire industry.

They are already testing the B777 ecodemonstrator. Part of the testing is new avionics and communications. It is just another step closer.

I look at all our below 30 new hires and wonder what the hell they are thinking. Cargo will lose a crewmember decades before passenger carriers. Those 4 guys going MEM-DXB will be widdled down to 3 then 2 in the next decade. We will have senior guys agree to losing a crewmember as long as they get a 10% raise.

It will be a long hard road to get there. This article written by one of our own Captains, illustrates many of the problems that are very hard to overcome.
https://airlinesafety.blog/2016/01/3...be-eliminated/