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My thoughts and concerns

Old 08-30-2015, 11:23 AM
  #1  
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Default My thoughts and concerns

I have read over and over the many concerns of pilots concerning our TA.


My feelings now is that this TA does not even come close to offering what we are worth. It is my opinion that the MEC should not have sent this to the membership for ratification, or maybe they want all of us to speak collectively. Perhaps that is premature to make this statement without having read it first, but the amount of controversy created by this TA is overwhelming.

If we vote this TA down and go back to negotiations, that is fine with me. What is everyone afraid of? We could wait for as long as it takes to get the contract we deserve, or live the rest of our careers under a contract we don't deserve. It may be difficult to wait longer for a better contract, but FedEx would be waiting right there with us. Ask yourself what you would prefer.

The mere fact that we didn't get an improvement in the A plan should be a no vote for everyone. The way I see it, the company has terminated the A plan by doing this. In 8 years when this cycle starts again, many pilots will see the erosion of value in our A plan. It will be much easier to give in to a modified B plan. Many new pilots that will be hired in that time frame won't be vested and probably won't care about giving up the A plan. We all need to think very hard of the unintended consequences of this contract.

The 10% raise the first year is great right? Why is the first year so high? It is quite simple, divide it by the years we have waited for a contract and it equals the rest of the pay raises going forward.

Signing bonus, what a windfall of cash. Not really. Our average BLG according to the contract is 74 hours a month. Does the proposed amount of your signing bonus equal the amount lost? I keep hearing everyone saying that we gave the company an interest free loan. We did not do that at all. We actually paid interest to them if we accept that amount in signing bonuses.

I keep hearing about this 6 week bid month. You have got to be kidding me. Can anyone give me just one example how this is good for us? I just don't see it.

Sleep room in lieu of hotel room for turns. This actually made me laugh. How long do you think it would take the company to change turn times? The fox already had the keys to the chicken coop, now we are just leaving the door open.

I can go on and on. I am not saying anything that most of you have not already said. I guess I just don't get it. We have been told for so long what we are worth and it does not look like we got what we deserve.

Now I challenge all of you to stand together and do the right thing!
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Old 08-30-2015, 12:38 PM
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Originally Posted by jetstar1 View Post
I have read over and over the many concerns of pilots concerning our TA.


My feelings now is that this TA does not even come close to offering what we are worth. It is my opinion that the MEC should not have sent this to the membership for ratification, or maybe they want all of us to speak collectively. Perhaps that is premature to make this statement without having read it first, but the amount of controversy created by this TA is overwhelming.

If we vote this TA down and go back to negotiations, that is fine with me. What is everyone afraid of? We could wait for as long as it takes to get the contract we deserve, or live the rest of our careers under a contract we don't deserve. It may be difficult to wait longer for a better contract, but FedEx would be waiting right there with us. Ask yourself what you would prefer.

The mere fact that we didn't get an improvement in the A plan should be a no vote for everyone. The way I see it, the company has terminated the A plan by doing this. In 8 years when this cycle starts again, many pilots will see the erosion of value in our A plan. It will be much easier to give in to a modified B plan. Many new pilots that will be hired in that time frame won't be vested and probably won't care about giving up the A plan. We all need to think very hard of the unintended consequences of this contract.

The 10% raise the first year is great right? Why is the first year so high? It is quite simple, divide it by the years we have waited for a contract and it equals the rest of the pay raises going forward.

Signing bonus, what a windfall of cash. Not really. Our average BLG according to the contract is 74 hours a month. Does the proposed amount of your signing bonus equal the amount lost? I keep hearing everyone saying that we gave the company an interest free loan. We did not do that at all. We actually paid interest to them if we accept that amount in signing bonuses.

I keep hearing about this 6 week bid month. You have got to be kidding me. Can anyone give me just one example how this is good for us? I just don't see it.

Sleep room in lieu of hotel room for turns. This actually made me laugh. How long do you think it would take the company to change turn times? The fox already had the keys to the chicken coop, now we are just leaving the door open.

I can go on and on. I am not saying anything that most of you have not already said. I guess I just don't get it. We have been told for so long what we are worth and it does not look like we got what we deserve.

Now I challenge all of you to stand together and do the right thing!
+100%
I share your thoughts completely.

There will never be a better time for our union to demand a fair and comprehensive contract........and from the highlights I've read, this PO$ TA ain't it. I'm shocked there isn't more outrage being voiced by our crew force, I'm hoping most people are just waiting for the official document to be released before they really rise up against this insult.
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Old 08-30-2015, 05:08 PM
  #3  
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Originally Posted by jetstar1 View Post
I have read over and over the many concerns of pilots concerning our TA.


My feelings now is that this TA does not even come close to offering what we are worth. It is my opinion that the MEC should not have sent this to the membership for ratification, or maybe they want all of us to speak collectively. Perhaps that is premature to make this statement without having read it first, but the amount of controversy created by this TA is overwhelming.

If we vote this TA down and go back to negotiations, that is fine with me. What is everyone afraid of? We could wait for as long as it takes to get the contract we deserve, or live the rest of our careers under a contract we don't deserve. It may be difficult to wait longer for a better contract, but FedEx would be waiting right there with us. Ask yourself what you would prefer.

The mere fact that we didn't get an improvement in the A plan should be a no vote for everyone. The way I see it, the company has terminated the A plan by doing this. In 8 years when this cycle starts again, many pilots will see the erosion of value in our A plan. It will be much easier to give in to a modified B plan. Many new pilots that will be hired in that time frame won't be vested and probably won't care about giving up the A plan. We all need to think very hard of the unintended consequences of this contract.

The 10% raise the first year is great right? Why is the first year so high? It is quite simple, divide it by the years we have waited for a contract and it equals the rest of the pay raises going forward.

Signing bonus, what a windfall of cash. Not really. Our average BLG according to the contract is 74 hours a month. Does the proposed amount of your signing bonus equal the amount lost? I keep hearing everyone saying that we gave the company an interest free loan. We did not do that at all. We actually paid interest to them if we accept that amount in signing bonuses.

I keep hearing about this 6 week bid month. You have got to be kidding me. Can anyone give me just one example how this is good for us? I just don't see it.

Sleep room in lieu of hotel room for turns. This actually made me laugh. How long do you think it would take the company to change turn times? The fox already had the keys to the chicken coop, now we are just leaving the door open.

I can go on and on. I am not saying anything that most of you have not already said. I guess I just don't get it. We have been told for so long what we are worth and it does not look like we got what we deserve.

Now I challenge all of you to stand together and do the right thing!
WELL SAID !!!!! I AGREE 100% UNLESS THE TA HAS SOME MAGICAL CHANGES WE CAN NOT SEE I DONT KNOW HOW ANYONE COULD VOTE yes ON THIS
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Old 08-30-2015, 05:37 PM
  #4  
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A review of history.

How Fedex Made Its Pilots Blink; Culture Colored by Chairman's Resolve Overwhelms Union
By LAURENCE ZUCKERMAN
Published: November 24, 1998

Callers to the message line of the Federal Express pilots' union just last Thursday were reassured that the pilots had Fedex on the run.

''We are pulling together to fight for our families and our careers,'' Byron Cobb, the union's vice president, said in the message. ''The plan is working.''

But later that same day at an emotional meeting at the union's cramped headquarters in Memphis, senior pilot after senior pilot stood up and pleaded with union leaders to call off a threatened holiday strike.

Pilots were worried that the company would do what Fred Smith, Federal Express's founder, had threatened: keep shipments going without them by spending tens of millions of dollars to contract out flights.

''These were people who knew Fred Smith, and said he was serious,'' said Bob Clement, a union spokesman.

Within hours, the fledgling union, which represents 3,500 pilots at Fedex, raised the white flag, agreeing to suspend its strike threat in exchange for the company's pledge to resume talks.

Federal Express's stunning victory stands in stark contrast to the experience of other passenger and cargo airlines, where pilots have maximum leverage over management -- and are not reluctant to use it. This summer, pilots at Northwest Airlines shut the carrier down for 15 days. Earlier this year, the pilots at Fedex's archrival, United Parcel Service, still recovering from last year's strike by teamsters, received the richest contract in the industry.

How Fedex, which Mr. Smith conceived in a 1965 Yale undergraduate term paper and has since turned into the world's largest express freight company, managed to succeed where other companies have failed is a result of a seductive corporate culture, a weak and inexperienced union and the skillful use of a classic divide-and-conquer strategy that isolated the union leadership and aroused the fears of its members.

Whether vanquishing the pilots is ultimately a Pyrrhic victory is another question. If Fedex, which has no other unions, presses this current advantage too hard, it may be left with bitter pilots at a time when some other Federal Express employees are beginning to warm to efforts by unions to organize them.

The talks with the pilots, which resumed yesterday, are expected to result in a tentative agreement quickly, even though the company has made it clear that the cost of the planes and trucks that have already been leased means that it will be forced to offer the pilots less than the proposal they rejected last month.

Unions have never been very popular with Mr. Smith, who is now chairman of Fedex's parent, the FDX Corporation. He successfully fended off several efforts by the teamsters and others to organize workers in the company's early years. His philosophy has been that if employees are treated well, they will provide superior service to customers -- and they will have no need to turn to organized labor. (Mr. Smith declined requests to be interviewed.)

Today, even part-time hourly workers who sort the 1.5 million packages that whip by nightly on high-speed conveyor belts at the giant hub in Memphis receive comprehensive health insurance, tuition reimbursement and other benefits. Many of the workers are students or have other full-time jobs but ''work the sort'' from 11 P.M. to 3 A.M. expressly for the benefits.

The company has also made a point of promoting from within. An impressive number of its managers -- including many at the highest levels -- started their careers at Federal Express as hourly workers and remain fiercely loyal to the company and its signature purple color.

''I've got purple blood,'' declared Brenda Saulsberry, 42, a mother of three, who has worked at Fedex for 10 years, most recently in customer service. She spoke at an employee rally last week to support Fedex.

At the rally -- which was heavily supported, if not entirely orchestrated, by the company -- thousands of Fedex workers took to the streets in Memphis waving placards and singing the company anthem. (''We carry dreams and plans to a hundred lands. We're the best way to ship it everywhere.'')

The crowd was so enthusiastic that it erupted into wild applause after a Filipino employee delivered a statement of support in Tagalog from workers at Federal Express's hub in Subic Bay. ''Did you even understand what I said?'' she asked before reading a translation.

But as the company has tried to squeeze more productivity out of its workers in recent years, many employees, especially those outside Memphis, where Fedex is the largest employer, have started to bridle.

''We have actually been losing ground for the last 8 or 10 years,'' said Dan Proffitt, a tractor-trailer driver in Indianapolis who has worked for Fedex for 23 years and is now a teamsters' organizer.

It was the pilots, in fact, who helped establish the Fedex culture. In the company's early days, they pitched in to load the planes as well as fly them. Mr. Smith, a former Marine aviator who flew missions in Vietnam, was known to hang out in the crew lounge.

In recent years, such camaraderie waned as the pilots complained about heavy work schedules and pay that lagged behind those of pilots at unionized companies. While Federal Express pilots earn between $40,000 and $164,000 a year in base salary depending on their years of service, they have not had a substantial wage increase in more than 10 years and have fallen behind their peers at several other airlines. And without union representation, the pilots were not entitled under Federal Law to the same retirement benefits enjoyed by their counterparts.

Still, the pilots might have had a contract earlier if their ranks were not so divided. After the Air Line Pilots Association narrowly won the right to represent them in 1993, pilots rejected the contract the union had negotiated. Many felt that the union, which has contracts at 50 airlines, was too strident. Then in March, pilots voted down a second tentative agreement negotiated by the Fedex Pilots Association, a more moderate in-house union, which replaced A.L.P.A. in 1996, because the pact did not deliver enough.

By this summer, widespread discontent had united the pilots against the company. In particular, there was a growing sense that the company had been taking advantage of the years of protracted contract negotiations by unilaterally changing the pilots' work rules.

''Instead of working 14 days a month, you were working 16 days a month for the same pay,'' said David I. Slatinsky, an Airbus A300 captain who began flying for Fedex in 1974.

Cynthia K. Berwyn, a DC-10 captain who has been at Federal Express for 13 years, said she became alarmed in 1996, when the company told her that the time she spent on pregnancy leave the year before was being deducted from her length of service at the company, an important determinant of pay.

After she complained that she did not have the time deducted following her two previous pregnancies, she was told that those leaves would be deducted retroactively. ''This is the issue that made me realize that we needed a set of rules that would be applied fairly,'' she said.

And whatever lingering doubts some pilots had about supporting the union were erased in June after the company introduced a new computer program to generate flight schedules. The new software sought to schedule the company's 326 jets as efficiently as possible. But it sent many pilots on grueling trips across dozens of time zones with only minimum rest between flights.

Fedex acknowledged that there were problems but insisted that they had been corrected.

Still, the pilots no longer trusted the company. More than 98 percent are members of the union, compared with 62 percent a year ago.

When contract negotiations began in July, the pilots asked for a large wage increase on top of one-time payment to make up for the raises they had not received since 1993, increased retirement benefits, and a series of new work rules.

The talks dragged into the fall, and the union threatened to strike during the peak holiday season. The results of a strike authorization vote were scheduled to be announced on Dec. 3.

On Oct. 30, the company gave the pilots what it said was its final offer and set a midnight deadline. The union said it needed more time.

The next day, Federal Express withdrew from talks and began leasing planes and trucks and assuring customers that it would continue to serve them no matter what.

Whether Fedex could have operated without its pilots will never be known. But the company was never planning to operate without pilots: its strike contingency plan was based in part on the assumption that many would cross the picket line.

''I can't tell you how many, but I know there is a large number of Federal Express pilots committed to providing service to our customers should there be a strike action by our union,'' Theodore L. Weise, Fedex's president and chief executive, said in an interview last week.

No one understood the divisions among the pilots better than Federal Express executives, as they sought to prevent the union leaders from getting the more than two-thirds vote they needed to call a strike.

The pilots were told in letters from Mr. Weise and finally, from Mr. Smith himself, that the company would move forward with or without them. And last week's raucous employee rally showed many pilots that unlike U.P.S., where most of the workers are unionized, they could expect little support from Fedex's 140,000 employees.

The union leaders themselves did little to help their cause. They were short on experience and had little support from the national labor movement. Federal officials who dealt with the union said they were surprised by its lack of knowledge of the Railway Labor Act, the arcane law that governs union activities in the airline industry.

In the end, the pilots surrendered after they learned on Thursday that Fedex was preparing to lay off 500 pilots this week and to announce that it had leased more airplanes to be flown by outside pilots.

''Knowing that Mr. Smith is an unconventional individual in the way he responds to things,'' said Mr. Cobb, the union vice president, ''we had to do something unconventional to get his attention.''

Mr. Cobb insisted that the union had not lost its leverage because it had agreed only to delay any potential strike for at least 60 days. But a walkout hardly seems likely because package volume drops precipitously after the holidays, making it easier for the company to weather a strike. And while the rank and file could vote down an agreement viewed as too concessionary -- indeed many pilots lashed out at union leaders at a meeting on Sunday in Memphis -- that is also unlikely because it now appears that any contract would be better than no contract at all.

Like other Fedex workers, the pilots are once again placing their faith in Mr. Smith's benevolence.

''He really will show his true colors to the world,'' Mr. Cobb said, referring to the new contract negotiations. ''It's the greatest opportunity for him to do the right thing.''

Photos: Federal Express aircraft lined up for early morning loading in Memphis, one of the company's hubs. Steve Gregory, a senior global operations control specialist, at the ''war board,'' which helps Fedex keep track of its worldwide flights. (Photographs by Steve Jones for The New York Times) Graph: ''Pay on the Skyway'' Federal Express pilots earn between $40,000 and $164,000 a year in base salary, depending on years of service, but they have not had a substantial wage increase in more than 10 years and have fallen behind many of their peers. Graph comares the average annual salaries for senior pilots. (Source: Air Inc. Atlanta)
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Old 08-30-2015, 06:32 PM
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Originally Posted by FoxHunter View Post

A review of history.

And for that, FedEx Express won a Silver Anvil Award by the Public Relations Society of America for its communications campaign against its own pilots.


That same year, the Independent Pilots Association representing the pilots for United Parcel Service also won a Silver Anvil Award for their campaign to achieve a new contract.



Maybe it's our turn now.






.
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Old 08-30-2015, 06:35 PM
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Originally Posted by TonyC View Post
And for that, FedEx Express won a Silver Anvil Award by the Public Relations Society of America for its communications campaign against its own pilots.


That same year, the Independent Pilots Association representing the pilots for United Parcel Service also won a Silver Anvil Award for their campaign to achieve a new contract.



Maybe it's our turn now.






.
It should be.
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Old 08-30-2015, 06:48 PM
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Originally Posted by TonyC View Post
And for that, FedEx Express won a Silver Anvil Award by the Public Relations Society of America for its communications campaign against its own pilots.


That same year, the Independent Pilots Association representing the pilots for United Parcel Service also won a Silver Anvil Award for their campaign to achieve a new contract.


Maybe it's our turn now.
.
Was that the year that the IPA screwed up, and allowed in the NURPS (non union replacement pilots), that enabled them to furlough pilots for so long?

I don't think I'll be looking towards the IPA as an example of stellar contract achievements. I'll take the contract we have right now, over theirs, especially since they have been negotiating even longer than we have.
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Old 08-30-2015, 07:21 PM
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Originally Posted by FoxHunter View Post
A review of history.
Are you trying to scare us, or just offer a friendly reminder?
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Old 08-30-2015, 07:56 PM
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Originally Posted by jetstar1 View Post
I have read over and over the many concerns of pilots concerning our TA.


My feelings now is that this TA does not even come close to offering what we are worth. It is my opinion that the MEC should not have sent this to the membership for ratification, or maybe they want all of us to speak collectively. Perhaps that is premature to make this statement without having read it first, but the amount of controversy created by this TA is overwhelming.

If we vote this TA down and go back to negotiations, that is fine with me. What is everyone afraid of? We could wait for as long as it takes to get the contract we deserve, or live the rest of our careers under a contract we don't deserve. It may be difficult to wait longer for a better contract, but FedEx would be waiting right there with us. Ask yourself what you would prefer.

The mere fact that we didn't get an improvement in the A plan should be a no vote for everyone. The way I see it, the company has terminated the A plan by doing this. In 8 years when this cycle starts again, many pilots will see the erosion of value in our A plan. It will be much easier to give in to a modified B plan. Many new pilots that will be hired in that time frame won't be vested and probably won't care about giving up the A plan. We all need to think very hard of the unintended consequences of this contract.

The 10% raise the first year is great right? Why is the first year so high? It is quite simple, divide it by the years we have waited for a contract and it equals the rest of the pay raises going forward.

Signing bonus, what a windfall of cash. Not really. Our average BLG according to the contract is 74 hours a month. Does the proposed amount of your signing bonus equal the amount lost? I keep hearing everyone saying that we gave the company an interest free loan. We did not do that at all. We actually paid interest to them if we accept that amount in signing bonuses.

I keep hearing about this 6 week bid month. You have got to be kidding me. Can anyone give me just one example how this is good for us? I just don't see it.

Sleep room in lieu of hotel room for turns. This actually made me laugh. How long do you think it would take the company to change turn times? The fox already had the keys to the chicken coop, now we are just leaving the door open.

I can go on and on. I am not saying anything that most of you have not already said. I guess I just don't get it. We have been told for so long what we are worth and it does not look like we got what we deserve.

Now I challenge all of you to stand together and do the right thing!
Jetstar, you obviously do not know how this process works. Your statement, "the TA does not even come close to offering what we are worth", leads me to believe that. We do not get what we are worth, we get what we negotiate and it takes two to negotiate. You also have to keep in mind that we have a mediator who doesn't really care what we are worth. He's looking to get an agreement and when he thinks that an agreement is doable, that's what he pushes. If we turned down this TA, most likely we will be done until early next year. Make no mistake, the company will get through peak. It may be ugly and we may lose customers, but they will get through peak. I've been here long enough to witness overestimating our leverage more then once.

Don't take what I said above as an endorsement of the TA, I'll have to take a look at it before I make my decision. I'm really unhappy about retirement. Take my statement above as a reality check. There will be consequences if we turn down this TA. The decision has to be an unemotional one. You need to decide what's best for you and your family. Read some of Albie's posts on here. He presents a very level headed view on the TA.
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Old 08-31-2015, 12:31 AM
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Originally Posted by busdriver12 View Post
Was that the year that the IPA screwed up, and allowed in the NURPS (non union replacement pilots), that enabled them to furlough pilots for so long?

I don't think I'll be looking towards the IPA as an example of stellar contract achievements. I'll take the contract we have right now, over theirs, especially since they have been negotiating even longer than we have.
We all lost out when your Union undercut us on pay. Your union started negotiations asking for less than what UPS had tentatively agreed to pay us in 2006. NMB turned to our negotiators when the ALPA proposal was submitted and laughed. It literally cost us $20 an hour.

NURPs are "original sin" at UPS. We can't bargain them away. It's bad and you got us on that one.

Our 757 pilots flying the same routes as yours are making substantially more. FedEx gets you on the cheap. The single pay scale, or wide body for everyone, is an area we are superior. Not having to chase the pay scale and needlessly train is under appreciated by you guys.

No good comes from bickering. I wish FDX ALPA would consider collaborating with the IPA EB but they won't. If you guys kill the TA, perhaps there will be a movement to reestablish an in house union. Way too many chiefs. The fact that after this long your MEC only supports a TA 10-4 is astonishing. It was a mistake for them to settle before us. Vote it down and let the IPA do the heavy lifting. We are used to it.
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