I keep hearing this from guys, yet I haven't seen any data to back it up. The assumption being givebacks in the TA will create less pilots required. So if the TA passes we are still overstaffed by 800, and if the TA doesn't pass we are still overstaffed by 800?

 

An easy area that will affect staffing is the removal of the cap for vacation but back at the end of the year. With a cap, the company needs to staff for pilots to take their vacation. Without a cap, a number of pilots will not take as much of any of their vacation and therefore less staffing required. A second section is the Bumped for training, when the company removes a pilot under the current CBA the pilot has no need or obligation to pick up trips, under the new TA, a certain number of those pilots will need to pick up trips that otherwise would have been left for secondaries, etc. thus less staffing required. I don’t have numbers to say how much, I don’t think the union has computed them but I haven’t asked. Just areas that have an impact. As far as if this TA passes we will be less overstaffed is questionable math because it is based on pilot choosing to retire. I believe we have around 70 that will turn 65 by the end of this year, those are the only ones I am counting on leaving.

 

Changing R24 to R16 also creates greater flexibility to assign trips, which will increase Reserve Utilization.

Higher Reserve utilization = Less Reserves needed.

Less Reserves needed = Less Total Pilots needed.

We wouldn’t give them their ultimate efficiency dream - a Preferential Bidding System - so they have sought efficiency improvements in many other areas.

Some will try to claim these are just “corner cases” that will only have marginal affect. The company fully understands otherwise.

 

We are right staffed if we reject this TA as we head to peak

All you fence sitters, NO is the time!

We are not over staffed (we ARE artificially over staffed).
- A Tiered retirement would not be TA’d for an over staffed company.
-A raise in NH pay would not have been TA’d for an overstaffed company.
-We are over staffed but yet no calls for LOA from the company or Union.

These TA efficiencies will make us overstaffed as they enact all the ways they will need less pilots.


What time is it! NO is the time!

 

like others have said, removing the cap for unused vacation, eliminating bump for training, and R16 will all reduce our staffing needs, significantly.

 

I know you say marginal effect facetiously, and I add this is going to affect everyone. This will affect both CA's and FOs while creating a strictly LCA bidding club effectively killing seniority. When you kill seniority in this manner you now have PBS.

We already have LCA/Flex/ADP bidding clubs. These clubs are the worst at grabbing draft - not all but most - and then complaining about he line guy.

As PM said, we have a fiduciary responsibility and CB email the NC speak for me. Yeah right. The NC and MEC and our pilot management are only looking out for their interest not the groups or leaving this place better than they found it.

New hires run and if you have an app here forget about FedEx.

 

It was brought up again on the virtual roadshow how it was wrong to potentially have senior guys leaving with no fix to retirement.

 

That can be solved by requiring "retro" retirement in any future TA. As it should have been done in this one.

 

The senior pilots I've spoken with said they plan to stay on until 65. There is uncertainty regarding inflation, and the healthcare issue. Ironically, I would probably end up in deep need of top notch insurance if I kept at this job over 60. Working 60-67 is not winning. If you have full pension (well, what was the A plan, which apparently we won't be having if this TA passes) you are working for free for all of your pension replaceable earnings, and then paying high taxes, so about August or September of each year you begin to make some money for yourself. You have donated back to the company for 5 years when you could have collected what you earned. And likely accelerated your death and loss of good health.

 

And now the MEC Chair parades out two former MEC Chairs to join the sell job. Unbelievable. Take a look at the employee numbers and seniority of the current and former MEC Chairs and current NC. The initial polling was done years ago, and the crew force has changed significantly since. When it became apparent that Scope was trending higher on the priority list, this group did not acknowledge it, and plowed straight ahead. Might have been wise to get some input from the junior crowd at that point. Now we're 4 days out, and it sure seems like they don't have the votes.

Don't fall for the fear.