Not that your logic is too far off given the magnitude of increases in fuel costs, but the cost of an employee is far greater than the straight pay. I don't know anything about the CAL structure, but you would have also have to look at the cost of insurance and benefits, cost of continued training, cost of any pay step increases, etc to get a true value on what it costs a company to keep an employee hired without a need. Does CAL bring pilots back with longevity increases as if you had never left if they put them on the street? In tough financial times, the bean counters take over and look for every possible way to save a buck disregarding company morale or a long term strategy. Hope this all works out soon.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say. I've been here for 20 years and have been fighting tooth and nail to change the scab mentality around here.

Should I hope that all junior people get furloughed just because I've flown with a few jerk-off F/O's?

Its half-baked statements like yours that create division amongst the ranks Space-boy.

 

Last month at the Kellener/Moran meeting. They stated that furloughing new pilots for less than 18mos was more expensive than keeping them on the property. Speaks volumes of our contract. I'm not too worried though, furloughs are always a threat during contract negotiations. And correct me if I'm wrong, but we are still a growing airline at the end of said 18 months. If management were smart, they'd furlough the bottom 2,000 guys for the duration of TA voting. They'd get exactly what they wanted from the union...again. I'm hoping for some "Killer B", A/A style, from the new guys next year. If any of the B's have any reflection, I'd love to hear it.

 

I'm a new hire the cost of insurance for them is zero because I am not past my 6 months. Step increase in pay is I think $.63 an hour starting july 1. I have only been on line for 2 months since the initial training event, so that seems like a bit of a waste. And for true value I flew 50 hours this month on reserve even after the first 25 got me past the 100 hour mark and I have been out on family leave since the 18th. I was told after the 100 hours scheduling was not going to use me unless it was a last option.(By the other pilots in the crash pad) Those are the stats from this newhire.

 

Is that starting to happen where you are? I ask only because of where you are, our industry's version of Camelot.

 

Some highly speculative math in public: 105 737-300 & 737-500 jets to possibly park.
737 orders for 2008: I'm guessing that we're getting another 15 or so jets this year to make 33 total
737s in 2009: 24
737s for 2010: 10
I'm not even going to guess about the 787 deliveries.

The net change: minus 55 jets. I'm not sure what the crew ratios are or how many pilots that equates to.

Also not sure how many retirements will happen.

Surely ALPA will help me put food on the table.

 

I don't think the intent is to park all 48 300's. Think they would scrap all 500's if possible. How does that affect our intn'l feed? esp with widebodies coming. Ceding market-share is not the answer right now. 300's with winglets are at least market neutral when providing int'l feed. The company hasn't even expressed the desire to park all of the 300's. I think they have a lot more desire to use furlough as a scare tactic to get the kind of contracts that they are used too. Furlough is tough, but bearible. I got furloughed and made twice as much money as I would have working for CAL in year 1-2. During my last furlough, I made more than I make as a CAL 73 Captain now. As a pilot group, we need to let them know that if they furlough the most junior of us, They will have to pay more in the long haul, ie respectable contract. We should fight for every pilot to stay on the property. If we can't achieve that, we should cover their health insurance & travel benefits. Don't just roll over this time. If we don't eat our young, as in the past, they can return to real careers. And our ability to suck it up might actually cause some of these 64.5 year olds to leave. At their time.

 

I worked through the math a couple of days ago. As of June PBS there are:

5079 total pilots on the seniority list
4912 pilots are flying in June

2908 pilots on the 737
1417 pilots on the 756
587 pilots on the 777

If the count of aircraft on APC is correct, then there are 10.8 pilots flying per 737, 16.9 pilots flying per 756, and 29.4 pilots flying per 777. This should be pretty close.

 

Now that's the kind of talk I like to hear! I don't care what oil costs, what this and that costs. I care that we have the best work rules, the highest pay, and the best overall contract of any airline out there. The rest I really don't care about. New hires should have benefits from day 1. First year pay about $65/hour. Look at the Fedex contract..take a snapshot and write CAL at the top. Done. Anything less is unnacceptable. Oil will drop back down and management will be laughing in our faces if we've signed some bull**** contract. Drag it out until we get what we want!

 

Fact: All 300s are being eliminated before all 500s