Should the company be providing vests? Depends. It's not required via our own pubs (but is at some airports). AT THOSE AIRPORTS, the vests should be available. If they are not, what do you propose - the FO stay at the plane until one is located/found? They don't do the walkaround? Outside of filing a grievance every time, what choice do they have? I understand your frustration but I'm not sure your complaining makes sense in the grand scheme of things unless you can propose a viable alternative.

At least our dues are going toward something we can all see as useful (vs. more talk/newsletters). What might have been better for the union would be to WORK OUT A DEAL w/ the company to provide a shipset of vests (2 per ship i would imagine is good enough). That way, the actual # of vests would be less AND we could get something in return. I supposed if they had tried (unsuccessfully), that they would've let us know...

My advice particularly in contact negotiations when you aren’t happy with the company is yes…wait till you can locate a provided vest in those required locations.

GMAFB…

https://i.ibb.co/T8SLwxJ/IMG-6467.jpg

Should we pick up a quart of oil on the way to work too? How about throwing $50 to the fueler?

It doesn't matter it's a few dollars. If we need it to do our job, it should be provided.

There should be a vest in every airplane, period. Doesn't need to be handed out to every new hire.

If you don't want to be fined/warned & are not provided a vest you have an ops frequency and maintenance can do it or they can pay $500 for a maintenance contractor to do it (cost of vests for half our fleet), take the delay and write it in the delay report.

Thats another reason I was irritated about the LIDO training. They give us the bare minimum CBT and have the podcasts that are hours long and expect us to do this training for free. I know someone posted That we should be doing this out of professionalism and that it’s our job. The send the check airman around. Will they help
me with the app and sit with me , once again on my own time to show me how to use the app better?

SHOULD? You are absolutely correct. But making a big deal of a $7 personal safety item? When you have a job that STARTS at $100K a year and you are publicly *****ING about something that is a one time purchase that eats up (no pun intended) three hours and 20 minutes of your per diem ONCE in your career as an FO?

Do you have any idea how cheap that sounds to…well, NORMAL people who make the median income of $65K? Tell me, do you have your own flashlight for doing walkarounds? You know, one of the GOOD ones that Costco sells in sets of 3 for $20? Or do you try to get by with the LED on your cell phone?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for negotiating hard with any management and there are battles that really need to be fought. But making a big deal of this? Choosing a $7 onetime in your career purchase for one’s personal safety as a big issue just makes people look foolish. That isn’t a battle even worth the fight, and making it out as a hill to die on just makes the person who does it look like a cheap entitled fool.

Do you even work here? Do you know how ridiculous you sound? It's not the cost of a vest, it's is the FACT that employees need to be provided with the tools required to do their job. A couple of posts above were spot on, and I think that having mechanics do the walk around is a perfect solution to getting the company's attention so they can get their minds right.

Exactly. The LIDO thing is ridiculous. The fact that they expect you to take hours of your personal time to learn new charts just because they decide to switch is asinine. Just wait until you take a sim ride with them...

Anyone who knows the situation would recognize it is the company that is cheap, not the pilot. If they don't want to provide required equipment, that's on them. I'll be sipping my coffee while watching guys like you go down and offer to help throw bags. I will follow my contract and stay in my lane, but if you want to be super pilot company man, go for it.