vc931

In the new TA FedEx is providing $1.67 million in value to FedEx pilots. How much are they saving in productivity improvements? One of the biggest savings for FedEx is the way carryover R-days will be handled in the new TA. Our current contract allows us to conflict carryover R-days with trips or R-ays in the subsequent month.In the TA, carryover R-days will take precedent over trips in a subsequent month and will have to be retained. The company will have much better reserve coverage during the bid month transitions and will require much fewer draft calls. Huge money savings for the company.

Raptor

Plus, all that newly conflicted stuff will go into the secondary lines.

I predict that not only will the percentage of secondary lines grow to replace the 20% of reserve lines being put into it, the number of secondary lines will grow to include all of this. And, there is no language in the TA to keep the number of reserve lines we currently have, except we have to have 13% of R24. What stops the company from making secondary lines comprise 30-40% of the bid pack on their newly efficient PBS engine?

busdriver12

I wonder what stops them now from doing that? Unless they deleted language that limited the number of VTO's, not sure what would be different after the TA than before it, at least as far as stopping them from making more VTO's. In fact, what stops them from making 100% of the bid pack secondary lines, now or after the TA.

I ask because I'm too tired to look all this up, and someone here probably knows this off the top of their head.

Raptor

What stops them from doing any change at them moment in ANY section is status quo during section 6 negotiations. The second thing that stops them is historical practice.

I posted in another thread and I will repeat the point here. Every time you see changed language, even if innocuous or minor, it's there for a reason. Take this example. Right now, CBA language permits the company to charge us for the deviation ticketing costs. They don't though. TA language is an "improvement" in that this is no longer unlimited, but they can only charge max of $25 and it can only happen after second change.

Wow, that seems better, an improvement for the pilots, but it isn't! Look behind the curtain. Historical practice shows they don't charge a dime. They can't change that during section 6. If the language doesn't change in the TA, they are still tied by historical practice and can't do it. But, they change the language to improve it for us, and now, they are no longer held to historical practice because there is new negotiated language to take precedence. The company fully intends to start charging us for deviation ticket costs, but they can't do it without new language. This change, although a win on the face of it, is really a give back! Sneaky isn't it?

This all has roots in English common law which we follow in the US. Think of owning a piece of land--it's yours to do with as you will. But, let your neighbor walk across it over the course of time and now you have an easement and you lose the right to fence off the pathway. This is why historical practice is important in grievances although we think we have plain language. But, once the plain language is changed, as long as the company doesn't allow its "right" to lapse, they now can enforce the new language. That's why seemingly small changes can be very important. That's also why we do a horrible job as a union grieving things because we should have a thousand grievances out there. When we permit the company to interpret things their own way, against language we think is plain....if we don't grieve it, it now becomes accepted practice in many cases.

busdriver12

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense. You sound like you have a legal background. We need more of your lawyerly types working in the union, for our side!!

MaxKts

Well, for one, if all the lines were "secondary" they wouldn't be secondary would they?



I think it has something to do with:

25.B. Bid Period Package

2. The bid period package shall list the following line bidding choices:
a. Regular lines;
b. Secondary lines; and
c. Reserve lines.

and this

25.D.2. Secondary Line Construction

a. A sufficient number of secondary lines shall be published to cover trips anticipated to be dropped from regular lines and other open time that may be available.


And also what Raptor said.

Raptor

My inner company planner comes out in "how am I going to maximize this" for the company's benefit. What I would do:

1) make every reserve line a carryover
2) in every secondary line that has reserve, make it carryover too
3) most all the reserve lines in normal bidpack no longer need to cover first week
4) minimize all the "normal" reserve lines so I can force more people into secondary lines (more lines in PBS is better for company)

I would do this because of one change in the TA...the one where reserve carryover kills the next month's trips instead of having the reserve dropped. This would put a lot of lines having trips or reserve dropped. Thus, number of secondary lines could be increased.

Take number of secondary lines as a percentage today. Add the 20% of reserve lines to that number (from the TA change), add to secondary the number of reserve lines you cut while making reserve lines minimal, add to the secondary lines all these trips dropped by doing what I suggested above and you have tremendous growth in secondary lines. Just by tweaking how I think as the company, I can probably double the number of secondary lines over what I have today. Welcome to a split crew force. The 50% bidding regular lines, the 10% bidding reserve, and the 40% in PBS.

Wait. I thought we held firm and stopped the company from instituting PBS?

Busboy

There's also this:


25.A.3. All trips known and confirmed at the time a bid period package is published shall appear in the bid period package. To the extent reasonably practical, such trips shall be built into regular lines.

The Walrus

Same thing with the dh on company aircraft section. It is from a grievance settlement from 2008, but now is being rolled into the cba with a few words changed.

Raptor

Put in a lot of carryover reserve and kill tremendous amounts of trips or reserve "trips" and you have just charged the secondary system and need more secondary lines.