Continental pilots call in sick
 

Talk about "coincidences".

Sick Continental Pilots Cause Flight Cancellations

IS it operation Orange...............

No were just that short.
,
And the only way they can spin this is to blame pilots for not taking no-doze, afrin, and sudafed, before reporting for work. Calalpa told the company our current staffing levels were not adequate but I guess they thought they would get more folks to pick up trips on their days off.

I typically fly SIX non-IRO trips to the UK a month, with 12 days off. That works out to about 90 hours a month in the summer. Sick and tired? That's putting it lightly. Let it burn.

When one of our IAH-ACP's addressed a class this past Spring, he had this to say about the Summer-2011 Staffing/Flying model when a pilot in the class broached the subject....

"Sure, you can always put 20lbs of groceries into a 10lb bag, but in the end, it won't work out too well".

All I have to say to him now is "No $h1+ Nostradamus".

Let's not forget the ever popular "You don't build a bigger parking lot at church just because of Christmas". :mad:

Is CALPA going to do anything with the press as far as getting the other side of the story out ?

Right now, most of the media is calling it a "pilot sickout", so unless ALPA get's involved with serious communication and clarification, the pilots will stay the bad guys.

If your insinuating that the CAL Pilot Group is worried about being PUBLICLY perceived as "Bad Guys", that's the least of our worries.

I'm sure the Union is setting up for the potential 'job action' claim by the Company in the wake of their Press Releases. UHC's publicly aired media blitz as to this being a "Pilot Sickout" is "reckless" in every sense of the word.....especially when examining our current staffing numbers vs marketing/block hour set for Summer 2011 flying = UNREALISTIC.....see the above quote.

"Heard" through the grapevine this afternoon that CAL ALPA is going to put something out by way of a public retort to the Company's claim. I'm sure everything is being put through the "legal-bee's", while bolstering their (CAL-ALPA) evidence/data prior to airing it. This is not something that 'just happened'. The Union has been 'informing' the company for quite sometime that they will run into problems this summer with it's marketing plans vs the pilots available to do the flying.

Stay turned.....

SoCal,

I don't know how things work at CAL, but at UAL, both in the 'summer of love" and the summer leading to recalls, I was mad that ALPA didn't provide the very correspondence with company regarding manning issues to the media ASAP after these shots were taken.

In both those examples, I worked for the SSC. I know exactly what the company was told and it came to fruition. A simple release of these documents, redacted as needed, stating that the union believes this plan is flawed because of x, y, and z. With dates at least 6 months prior to the breakdown. Might shutdown any media value the company could try to get by "politely" insinuating some type of possible job action.

Would love to see the company have to respond to that release by ALPA.

Frats,
Lee

Throw in and IRO and I bet they can push that number even higher.

Well they better think about building an extension cuz it looks like Jesus is comin' and he might be sticking around longer than Xmas...

This place is a f'ing joke....



A friend of mine told me this:
It's bizarre working for such a *****-house of a company that 24 canceled flights might qualify as an illegal job action.


It is hysterical that CAL is claiming a sickout.. 24 flights? AA did 600 a day for 11 days in '99.. that's a sick out...

Surely he won't be flying on CAL/UAL:D

So pilots don't get sick and 24 cancellations is a major job action? Anyone see the weather in EWR Monday and Tuesday? EWR will cancel a flight when there is a cloud in the sky. This was no orchestrated anything and the company knows it. ALPA has been telling the company for a year their staffing plans for the summer were inadequate. They were going to get into a situation where days off were rolled and pilots were going to reach their maximum hours too early in the month. That compounds the problem at the end of the month. The only reason the company put this information out is because it finally came down to not enough pilots volunteering to fly on their days off. Companies will do anything to keep from getting a bad name in the press...unless it can benefit from the press. Blame it on the pilots and it pits the customer and other employees against us.

Look at all the comments on these news story links you find on the internet. The traveling public has already fallen for the spin and lies the company has put out. We are being mildly crucified in those comments.

Why all of a sudden have these cancellations come out in the press? We have been negative reserve coverage for a good portion of the past month without all these alleged 'sick call' cancellations. Is it finally because the company can't cover the flights with reassignments, rolling reserves, junior manning, and the use of the chief pilots because people have dutied-out for the month? When weather hits our hubs Express carriers are the first flights to be cancelled and they have that happen in larger numbers than 24 flights at a pop. Those don't get into the press do they?

Yep, blame it on the pilots, but here is a clue:

When assistant chief pilots are coming into ground school in the past week and saying,

"I understand the staffing issue is taking its toll on all of you. I know you are frustrated but at the local chief pilot level we have no say about the staffing. We can only tell our superiors the problems we are having. All I am going to say is this: If you are sick you call in sick. If you are fatigued you call in fatigued. Just be safe in operating the airline."

That has been from more than one chief pilot in more than one base from my various friends throughout the system.

GF in the IAH CPO was overheard saying it was all FO's in EWR that were the cause of the elevated sick calls. Didn't say which equipment, though.

Hey! I resemble that statement. :p

If any of you CAL dudes can score me an interview, i'd be happy to help you all get a bit more shut-eye! ;-)

There's always someone next in line, perfectly happy to take your place being sodomized.

That's the problem with this whole freaking industry.

PIPE

Sounds like to me some people are upset about the integration screwing their about to recieve. :(