A bunch of people were fired/furloughed. Planes have left the property. Nothing good for us, just them.

Went to Starbucks the other night and was chatting with their manager on Mall Rd. All stores now close at 10:30 pm Sun-thurs an instead of midnight. Employee 401K match for part-time employees(major perk for their employees. Who else offers that to a part-time employee) has been cut and instead of getting 15-20 hours a week they are now getting around 8 hours. Starbucks currently has a 0% labor cost, but Corporate wants that number to be at -3%. This is exactly what Comair Management is looking at. Look at the chief pilots office alone. Closing that Saturday and Sunday will save them a ton of money in Labor over the course of a year. I don't agree with it, but they don't really care what we think. That's just one office. Spread that across the entire company.

 

Here is my response to Mr. B's 2009 strategic plan:

Paycuts: Employees across the board have been there and done that, with the exception of (I'm quite confident) DS and every CEO we've had since the cuts started.....

PPAS: Comair is the only DCI carrier that utilizes this cost-saving measure. Rather than Delta losing sleep over OUR costs, why not mandate the "20-some" other DCI carriers lower their costs by using PPAS or something similar?

Performance: This operation produced a record number of 100% completion days and met other on-time initiatives despite working with lower staffing levels and operating extensively in the northeast. What do we get in return? Airplanes re-assigned, furloughs, and the prospects of even more staffing reductions and, dare I say it, paycuts.

Packages: Want the old farts to leave to reduce our labor costs? How about stepping up to the plate with a legitimate retirement package! Joe Schmoe 20-year captain is not going to ride off into the sunset with a year's worth of pay and travel benefits when he could keep the left seat warm for 10 more years and earn over a million dollars in extra income. Make a good offer and I can assure you you'll have some takers. I'm no business major, but I've heard that sometimes you have to spend money to make (save) money.


In conclusion, this workforce is sick and tired of getting the run-around. We've been treated like the expendable "number" that we are and not the human beings we become when we punch out for the day and go home. We need a reason to care and a reason to give it our all. Everyone here has been victimized by false promises and a false sense of hope for an operation that continues to circle the drain. I doubt there are many that still think this place has a reason to exist after the events of the last few years. Best of luck with the implementation of your strategic plan and let me know what I can do to help---I'll be sitting at home doing nothing after the 19th.....

ComairFO

 

I do not understand how we would be reducing our block hour cost by having 20 year captains and 8 year FO’s fly our airplanes. That does not make any sense to me, but what do I know!

 

Anyone see these new flow charts?

 

Heh "fucus 2009"

"Get controllable block hour costs in line with peers"

Sounds like paycuts to me



(yes, it was intentional)

 

I second that....

 

Don't rip on the dispatchers too much. The company did just severely increase the workload, while at the same time getting rid of people. I'm just hoping they see the error of their ways, and I get a recall to go back in the near future. In reality, I'll probably be dispatching at a White Castle near you...

 

No, don't do that! Then the other carriers will be even LESS expensive than Comair! Not that I think PPAS saves anything anyway. Hmmm, it could also be a reason your late at your destination (take off 30 minutes late and still fly PPAS, I think not, but some do)

Examples of the obvious:
1. Fly PPAS and save 600 lbs of fuel per hour (100 gal) at say $3.50 a gallon, save $525 dollars on a 1.5 hour flight. Land 30 minutes late and have just one person never fly Delta again and much more is lost.

2. Fly PPAS for a scheduled 1.5 hour flight, and fly an extra 0.3 hours to get there (because your flying slow) and save $630 in fuel, while at the same time paying the crew 0.3 extra hours (which is not all that much when you look at our pay, but still).

3. Fly PPAS all the way from STL to Hoxie, where you either get told to speed up or hold for JFK, and all the savings are out the window.

Speaking of pay - I noticed in the contract that the FO pay scale only goes to 8 years. Is that the top pay as FO, even if you were here 10 or 12 years and got kicked back to the right seat? Yikes!
And if they ever do recall the furloughed pilots...it will be over 8 years before they upgrade!! Double Yikes!

 

So does any of the furloughed pilots that have been flying around on their pass benefits, know how we pay for taxes and etc. Do you just pay the custom fees up front like you did when you gave a buddy pass? They used to be deducted out of our paychecks? But no more paycheck after the 19th.....

 

They took it out of my vacation payout.