Time for accountability in CBA 2.0
 

In CBA 2.0, there must be provisions to make sure the company actually has an incentive to follow the contract. Do you know what happens now if they violate the contract? Nothing. The grievance process is a joke.

Other airlines have a penalty such as additional pay or an extra day off. We have nothing except a drawn out process where the company (months or years later) eventually says “ok, we won’t do it again” and nothing happens. This is a critical item for the union to address in negotiations; otherwise, our contract has no teeth and there is no incentive to follow it, making all the negotiated items a moot point.

It is important to be aware of this. I encourage all pilots to submit a PDR to the union asking for this issue to be addressed.

Lois! Take a letter!

welcome to being a union member….we had an issue back at the regionals that cost many pilots, myself included several thousand dollars. For an FO making less than $20k to fly an RJ back then that can be the difference between putting food on the table or bankruptcy. We grieved it, several years later we won and got a settlement. The ALPA lawyers got 50%, then there were a few other hands in Herndon and the MEC that got greased. In the end I got a check for $235.

Contract provision or not, you’ll get screwed in the process

Yep. Occasionally a small penalty will be paid because that's cheaper than arbitration. As soon as the number becomes significant the company will just say screw it and do it to every pilot. 5 years later when the huge grievance is settled in arbitration everyone will get 2% of what they should have. But we should keep the RLA because we 'understand' it, at least that's what I'm told.

Care to post that grievance settlement where it says the lawyers got half the settlement money?

It is not unusual for an arbitrator to rule in one parties favor yet have the award not make them 100% whole (unfortuneately), it is rather unlikely he made you whole and the lawyers, National, and the MEC all took a cut of the award. Again, if you think I'm wrong, post the ruling. Just cause it "feels" like ALPA screwed you doesn't make it true. Most likely the RLA process screwed you.

System Board of Adjustment is rubber stamp from almost every single union airline.

No airline has anything different than us.

Tons of guys file grievances and end up getting extra pay, extra day off, etc.

Are you out of your mind? The ALPA is a business. Like it or not it is true. They DO NOT make penalty’s in contracts. I’d love to see your penalty in any ALPA contract. Prove it.

Not necessarily BD. The point to make is what is the pilot group willing to give up to get such a clause. Much like the daily average versus daily minimum.

Gotta have somebody to blame.......

They won't post it because it doesn't exist.

And once they do get that pay or day off it pretty much becomes a standing remedy for that language violation. That’s the system. It’s frustratingly slow at times but as a contract matures over time the language solidifies through the grievance process.