CAL EWR

These types of comments are totally unacceptable from an MEC officer.





As I stated earlier, we all know that the economic reality of the airline industry is ugly. I don’t blame the union or even the company for this situation (with the exceptions of spending money pre-9/11 like a drunken sailor, not saving for a rainy day and not hedging fuel in the current environment). Nobody could have foreseen and prepared for the cataclysmic events that have occurred on and since 9/11. In the seventeen years I have been at Continental, I can count on one hand the number of good years we have had and I suspect much of my remaining twenty-one and half years until retirement will be very challenging to say the least.

We have little or no control over the economic environment, however, I do expect, no, I demand, my union leadership do whatever possible to represent our interests with vigor and do everything legal under the sun to protect and enhance our careers no matter how difficult the economic landscape gets. This can’t be done with union leaders who have the same current mind set as some.

I think we all can agree that the future of US Airways is dismal at best. Yet, their MEC is doing everything possible to represent their pilots to the best of their abilities as long as they have pilots to represent. In the recent past they have recalled their negotiating committee and published a press release about their MEC’s no confidence vote in their former CEO David Siegel. This is a perfect example of how I expect CALALPA to act, like a union, not a social club.

As you are all aware, we have a significant staffing problem on the line this summer. To quote Mike Bowen, “You really want to know how things were last weekend? We had every chief pilot and instructor pilot flying.”

Since it’s obvious at this point no more furloughed pilots are going to be recalled this summer, I would like to make the following suggestion: In the spirit of “working together” and sharing the load, since we aren’t currently planning on negotiating the “A-list sections” we should send all non-essential union personnel currently on full-time trip loss back to the line for the summer months. Maybe our reserves that have been literally beaten up will get rolled and turned less and may actually be able to spend more time with their families.

If I wanted to think only of myself, I could keep my mouth shut about all the problems I see with our MEC. No one has more to gain with the current MEC philosophy of survive at all cost, than me. As the only captain under age forty with twenty-one and half years to go until I retire at projected seniority number one, I certainty have a lot of time to make up for any concessions or any additional gains not reached in contract ‘02 as long as the airline survives in one form or another.

CAL EWR

However, four-hundred and thirty-five pilots and their families on furlough struggling to make ends meet and over two-thousand pilots retiring over the next ten years don’t have that luxury. So, I’m truly sorry if I have insulted or hurt anyone’s feelings by sharing my frustrations with you. All of the individuals I mentioned in this letter are very dedicated and talented union volunteers or employees of ALPA. We have to approach this contract and how we operate this union as a business and not let personal feelings or agendas interfere.

I worked very hard to help bring ALPA back to Continental. Every time I go to work I wear – with pride - my ALPA pin and ALPA watch given to me by ALPA President Duane Woerth. I don’t think we’re using the ALPA tool box to its full potential, and I don’t believe our MEC is doing everything it can to secure the best contract possible. That is why I feel obligated to speak out. I want you also to know that I plan on publishing this letter publicly so our membership can also understand my serious concerns.

In closing, I would like to remind our MEC of the following: It’s approaching three years now since four-hundred and thirty-five of our pilots and their families have been on furlough, flow-back, or some form of leave of absence. Many of them are extremely frustrated and feel they have been forgotten by our union and our active membership. I am amazed to hear that some of our pilots don’t realize or care that we still have pilots on furlough.

Please do everything you can to reach out to these brothers and sisters. We need to continue to do everything legally available to educate the remaining pilots about the effect of bidding all vacation and what effect the picking up of open-time has on the staffing needs of our airline.

Again I urge you to please take the time to listen to P2P conference call on the CALALPA web site. You will hear first hand many of the points I expressed in this letter.

Fraternally,



Jayson Baron




cc: Negotiating Committee

CALPilotToo

I know what you've written and I have copies of everything you just posted. You are the one person I never thought I'd here them state that they are happy we have 2-3 year CAs. It ****es me off because it tells me what kind of POS contract we have.

A legacy airline with 5000 pilots should not have 82% seniority holding CA narrowbody or 63% holding 757-767 CA slots. It should be more like 55% and 40% respectively.

Ask those with FedEx, UPS or SWA what the break point for holding CA slots are relative to percentage of seniority within their pilot groups and I will bet you your strike chairman postion we have the highest CA at 82% than any other legacy. That doesn't make me happy. Again, our seniority is inverted.

And as far as the expansion. WE ARE FUNDING THAT on our OWN BACKS. And that doersn't make me happy either.

How about guys from real airlines here chime in and give us your opinion. Am I thinking wrong here?

CAL EWR

You are correct our contract sucks we wouldn't have 1rst year 757 and 777 Fo's or 3 year 737 CA's if it wasn't for pos 02. It is an indication of how bad our contract and working conditions have falllen no doubt I agree 100%. Our expansion is far below what it should be to correctly staff our airline under duty rigs, work rules, staffing formula etc. A widebody FO should be far more senior than junior CA no arguments here.

The fact remains nothing is going to change until we fight for a new contract. I am ready to fight to the bitter end up for a real contract, we are on the same page.

Where we disagree is we are where we are and unfortunately we can not change it until the new contract. So I can be happy someone makes captain in two years. In my case I worked for cal with worse working conditions and pay then today and it took me 12 years to upgrade. So it could be worse.

That in no way is a cop out or justifing where we are today. By the way UAL had 3 year 737 CA's with a contact far better to ours today in the late 90's

Is it cause for celebration hell no! But if someone can upgrade under our POS instead of being a FO with a terrible life style then more power to them and I am happy for them.

I am in Madrid right now. I spent three hours walking around and eating dinner educating the FO and IRO on our history, contract 02 debacle and where we want to go. Ask them I am in no justifing what we have just the opposite. There response why is the first I have heard all of this history from a CAL captain.

Ottopilot

It is a huge pay raise. When my paycheck doubles; it's a raise.

I never said how good things are at CAL because of the quick upgrades, until now. It is good. I've never had it so good. It's all relative. CAL with a POS'02 is better than what I had before coming here. I came after the vote, but I have never voted yes on ANY contract (three) that was put before me. Plus, I served on the strike and comm. committees in the past. I'm looking forward to voting no again. I vote "no" unless I love everything in the whole contract- whether it affects me directly or not.

The Senior FO's don't want CA because it sucks compared to the past. I understand that, but understand I/We were not here in the past. It's not worse, but better than what we had before. Perspective.

I know I'll end up voting "no" as usual, so don't tell me how I'll vote. I've fought for contracts before and I'll do it again. The new people at CAL can only help, since CAL pilots have never had a good contract compared to the rest of the industry. I can bid CA and still fight for a good contract. Should I quit or refuse to upgrade? It's the same contract no matter what seat or aircraft I'm in, so why make a big deal about it?

I look forward to walking with you on the informational picketing and/or strike picketing.

CAL EWR

Here is another reason why I am happy we are going to have three year captains. Industry standard FO pay I believe is between 65 and 70 percent of same longevity captain for pay category. For contract 02 a second year FO is about 41 percent of second year captain and it slowly ramps up to normal standard percentages between five and seven years longevity. This is totally unacceptable!

I asked in public in front of many witnesses why we did this to our new hires including why they negotiated no insurance for new hires to our contract 02 negotiating committee chairman at the time and today a manager in Human Resources for Continental Airlines. His answer and I quote "why do I care about pilots who don't work here yet?"

We totally f@$ked over our new hires with contract 02 and they almost double their pay with an upgrade vs a measly pay raise as a 777 FO. So yeah I am very happy for them as we let them down big time!

Hey I'll say this publicly so you can remind me in the future. I came to work here at 21 in 1987 and I have spent almost half my life working for this company. I have (hopefully) at least 18 1/2 years left and I retire number 1 on our list. If we aren't even remotely successful in contract 08 and I mean a contract not with just good pay rates but everything else required of a contract that provides quality of life at home and at work. I will get some more time on the 756 and then the 777 and will seriously try to get a contact job overseas or just plain retire as soon as I can and hopefully that will be way before 50.