Widow's Son

It is an easy job. I've had real jobs and real jobs suck. Real people have to work real hard in the real world to get ahead in any profession. I've done the double digit legs, single digit overnights for chump change in a turboprop and as fun as it was in those days, thank goodness they are over. Now life is some occasional FMC management in-between Sudoku challenges for 15 days or so a month and a nice long vacation every quarter for about 200k a year. The thing to remember, and this is very important, is that as easy as the job appears to be, (it really is!), we are like anethesiologists (the easiest job in medicine), we get paid not for what we do, but for what we are capable of doing should the need arise. In that respect we earn and deserve every penny.
For all you young guys out there, don't let the boo-birds get you down. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and there are still some great jobs in this nutty industry that still beat real jobs hands down. If you were born to fly then you won't be happy doing anything else, and every downturn bottoms out and the boom times are just as cyclical. These clouds will part and there will be lots of jobs paying lots of money once again. Keep your family first, drive to work if at all possible, and remember that the career is a marathon and not a sprint and when faced with a choice of job security versus money, take the secure pick and in the long run the money will prove to be greater.

duffrick

These are interesting words from a CAL pilot. How quickly one forget all the crap that's come out of that airline and pilot group. Before UAL, AAA and NWA got their new sh!tty contracts, CAL was the scum-sucking bottom dweller in the Legacy basement.

The NWA TA is still better than UAL's and AAA's, compare 'em and you'll see. Now, I do agree with you that this TA sucks, but it is very easy for you to say we should have voted this TA down and to strike if necessary when you have no jeopardy of your own in the matter.

Eric Stratton

so duffrick what will the pay be on the new 100 seat airplanes when northwest starts replacing the dc-9.

was there some clause in there that you get to renegociate narrow body pay a year after exiting bankrupcy. someone told me that and I was thinking that it was just a nice rumor.

757Driver

Ah Duffrick, you must be very proud. One of the WORST contracts has been approved by a Union that WAS second to none in holding the line.

Your job is safe, you'll soon be flying RJ's and it will take you decades to return to the point at which you started.

I'm sure you and NWA management are popping the champagne corks as we speak.

FYI, Can we, (CAL Pilots), start calling you scabs, sell-outs ect... as I was called when I was approached by some NWA Pilots? No, I did not cross the picket line and yes I helped bring ALPA on the property., (This part is directed only at Duffrick and the very few NWA guys who did this.)

Shame on you Monkey Boy !!

Bleedovertemp

That wasn't the point. Airline managements are lowering pay, hiring and training standards. "Fast Food Nation". Something is gonna give. My guess is safety.

RedeyeAV8r

SKYhigh.........so now your an expert in Military matters too?

Tell us once more how much Military fight time do you have and many years you served in the Miltary.........oh and what branch?

duffrick

Ah, so now the NWA TA has gone from "This truly is a new low-point in Avaition. If the ferocious "Cobra's" can't hold the line, than who can.
Probably the most dismal day in the history of organized labor." to "One of the WORST contracts has been approved by a Union that WAS second to none in holding the line." It seems to me this TA is getting better by the minute.

My point with you and your rants is that you are so concerned about our TA at NWA, calling us all kind of names when your union since Lorenzo (in-house or ALPA) has never been able to negotiate an industry leading contract! It is only our slide down in the muck that is making your contract look good. So please, don't tell me how to vote on a TA for an airline you don't even work for.

Furthermore, unless you actually were a SCAB, which it appears you are not, I would never call you that. That is a very serious breach of code and ethics in my book, so if you took it as me calling you a SCAB, I didn't. My referall to you and your pilot group was a shot back to your sh!t about our TA, when you guys have had sub-par contracts at CAL for the last 25 years! Due to inept management at NWA, we are fighting for our survival. An industry leading contract just isn't in the cards. Can you understand that?

Lastly, there is no champagne cork poppin' here. I have said numerous times on this forum that this TA sucks, I stand by that. Nobody is happy over this TA, the question is whether we could have done better with a "NO" vote. If I believed we could have done better by turning this TA down, I would have voted to do just that, and struck if I had to! With the contracts of UAL and AAA already in place, any carrier in bankruptcy would likely end up with a contract similar to those guys. That's what happened. The precedent was already set.

Mr. Monkey Boy to you buddy.

duffrick

Mr. Stratton,

You have the TA, look it up. If you don't work for NWA, this website will provide you with all the details of our TA pay scales. I don't think they'll just start to park a bunch of DC-9's as soon as they can. I do believe, however, we'll start to park DC-9's as they come up for C checks, but I don't think that'll happen all at once.That would be to give up market share, can't do that. Remember, the 9's are paid for, any replacement airplane will cost money to buy (or lease).


If you work for NWA, let me pose this question to you; With the price of oil in general and the price of Jet A specifically pushing through the stratosphere, how likely do you think it is that NWA would buy a ton of airplanes at less than 77 seats when they may turn out to be money-losing gas-guzzlers (proportionately) like the ERJ, CRJ and the ARJ? Maybe that's not a fair question considering that our management at NWA are a bunch of morons, but nevertheless.

I bet you wont see many.

It's easy to look at single issues in a TA and judge the TA as whole on that. I tried to look at the whole TA and make a judgement on it as document, not a paragraph. I certainly don't like the 100 seat payscale, but if I ended up flying that airplane from a seat other that the left, it would be a painful adjustment I could make.

Eric Stratton

Duffrick

I don't work for NWA so I don't have a contract to look it up and APC isn't posting the new 100 seat range payscales yet.

Seen as how you don't seem worried about the 76 seaters, how long do you think it will be before NWA starts replacing the gas guzzling dc-9's with new airplanes at those new rates. I'm betting it will be shortly because like you said Jet A is pushing through the stratosphere.

2dotslow

Wrong prognosis, doc. Big difference between complacency and the relative ease of flying airplanes. But hey, I already stipulated that there is a teeth-clenching 10% in the business, so no biggie. FWIW, unless you suddenly become the CEO, Sr. VP, or Board member of my company, you don't have to worry about me up front. And, by the way, you can slip or skid a jet (especially fighters) just fine if you know what you're doing. Keep your alpha in the green, and fly safe.