Thanks for the 11 days off.....
 

Ever since I started, I’ve always been one to ignore a lot of the rumblings about Piedmont. I stay positive and that along with a lot of great coworkers is what makes this job great. With regard to the new reserve schedules though, enough is enough. I understand the desire to get as much as you can out of employees when they are getting paid 75 hours for reserve schedules, but to continue only giving 11 days off is a total D**k move. It costs the company nothing to give line holders or reserve line holders anywhere from 12-15 days off, but instead management chooses to stick it to their pilots yet again. Apparently they are either to stupid or too stubborn to see that it would help morale during these tough times and it would come at no extra cost. Hopefully everyone negotiating for us will remember this when they come asking for concessions down the road.

I never thought that I would be one on APC saying this, but if anybody eligible is considering Piedmont whenever hiring starts up again, DON’T DO IT!!!! Go somewhere else with the flow or without. Stay away from this place. The only thing it has going for it is the many people who are good and fun pilots and FA’s who happen to all make the same bad decision.

I talked to some piedmont ramp agents at DCA the other day. They're in the same boat. The bailout guarantees they get paid, so management is making everybody work their full schedule, despite only handling 0-2 flights per day with no flights in may/june since PSA parked their 200's.

They all just hang out in their break room at 35x. Handful of confirmed cases going around among them too.

Piedmont is making this as miserable as possible for all work groups, even though the gov. is footing our payroll.

Their archaic mentality must be “well we didn’t use you so you had the day off” and that’s how we are getting more than 11 days off. *face palm*

What is concerning to me is the fact that the union and NC are EXTREMELY quiet during these times. One email with the same information week after week, if that.

They have been releasing some people on the last day for a commute and occasionally some people are getting a standby day dropped. As for a whole month or a string of reserve days. Ha! You’re more likely to be put on reserve

Think about it from their perspective. Stick with building 11 day off lines and the pilot group will think it's business as usual, despite 90% of the flights canceled. Now consider what the pilot group's reaction would be if most of the reserve lines had 14-15 days off. Pilots would say, "wait, you could have been doing this all along?" That would give pilots leverage when this pandemic is over to get more days off each month.

This is just the way they think. They're not fooling anyone with those cute PR videos about how appreciative they are and how we're instrumental in keeping the airline up and running. We understand that airlines are in uncharted territory right now, but we'll keep doing our jobs as well as we always have. That said, commuting on reserve is pretty bad. Guys having to commute on what few flights are left and paying out of pocket for hotels during a pandemic is pretty rough.

11 day off RSV lines with no exceptions? That honestly is the company's way of sticking it to the pilot group for getting 75 hours of credit. Real great camaraderie and show of leadership from management right there. PDT always has had the worst RSV rules and treated their RSV pilots and FAs like trash. It looks like it is "business as usual" and that continues for the foreseeable future.

Crickets from the union as to why we could not get an LOA for long call RSV. Heaven forbid PDT management comes to their employees and shows that it cares about them and creates RSV lines with more than 11 days off.

They are really "caring for people on life's journey" here, aren't they?

this is just the start.

Stop excusing their behavior. You said it yourself: “this is uncharted territory”. We know this is not normal. They know it’s not normal. Less jets in the air means less people coming to work. More jets in the air means more people coming to work.

Piedmont pilots can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Not defending them at all. My post explained why they didn't want to offer any more days off than normal, despite the lack of flying. It's to show they do not care and do not want to lose leverage.

I believe they are so far removed from the mindset of working together and treating employees like humans that it didn’t even register as an option.

I get what you’re saying but the contract is the contract and they can enforce it. There’s no leverage in saying “we had more days off when we we’re operating 10% of our flights, now that we’re operating at 100% we need those same amount of days off”, that makes no sense. I guess that’s where I thought you were giving them a pass, because it just doesn’t jive. If anything, giving the employees the “gift” of treating them with humanity would give them brownie points and would benefit them in good faith negotiations.

Thats the funny part. The way things are looking if the airline is even still around at that point most of us will still be here in 2023 or whenever the real talks start.

Have you tried calling a rep?

Send it the Moon character to shoot a video...th

To be greeted by their voicemail?

Looks like the company is trying to feed us more scraps per that last email.

I figured giving 11 day off reserve lines was an effort to force more guys into taking that 20 hour junk.

Reserve lines are up to 12 days off now.

looks like they didn’t meet their quota for people taking the SRL. Hmm maybe if they offered more than 20 hours.

il be curious to see how many take this.

Exactly, they were banking on a lot more people taking it. But let's be real, 20 hours is a slap in the face when other regionals are offering 50 hours of credit to their pilots while on full leave for the month. Yes, I get that they are trying to save money, but at the same time, the pilot group is trying to not take a drastic pay reduction. So 75 hours for a RSV line makes more financial sense for most people. If they had offered 50 hours of credit for an SRL or full leave most people would have jumped on that in a heart beat.

Thanks for the 11 days off.....
 

Almost like someone said this last month...almost. April 1st is close enough.

With RSV going 40-50 deep, I’m guessing they need another 30-40 FOs and 30-40 CAs to take an SRL.

Better up the ante.

Exactly. The only reason I took SRL next month is because I wanted to try to help commuters and the company. Now that I see how they really are, I’m just going to bid reserve next month and get my 75 since I will either get furloughed or they’ll be asking for concessions in October. That email was more of a slap in the face. Total BS.

I'm curious to see their next course of action when nobody switches their RSV line for May to an SRL line. I mean why would anyone choose to go from 75 hours of credit with 12 days off to 20 hours of credit with 15 days off? Let's just look at those numbers and use basic logic. You would lose close to 73% of your monthly pay for an extra 3 days off. You're kidding me right? I'll "work" the extra 3 days and make 73% more pay and probably not get called in since there is no flying going on. The company had the chance here to make a statement and stand behind their crews and just offer what is currently offered elsewhere in the industry, but they unfortunately blew it, twice now with today's email begging for pilots to switch from RSV to an SRL line.

You have been misinformed. Surplus reduction lines are 20 hours of pay for the whole month off. Half lines are 15 days off and 45 hours of pay

I think your numbers are off a bit...

The 20 hours gets you the whole month off. The 45 hours gets you about 15-20 days off.

But still dumb to take considering all the RSV slots and chances of not working the whole month for 75h is very high.