Srry there JNB, I think these guys are a bit 'in the weeds' about the current topic, this so-called 'news' article. To bring others interested up to speed, this is about their contract. If you dont know it's been about a 3 year battle with NO end in sight. Much worse than RAH if you ask me.

There might have been a vauge hint of the NMB letting Lakes strike in Aug, but then whispers of that not being allowed due to the upcoming presidential election. Now the entire dispute is back to square one, like the last 3 years didn't happen. With a new NMB meeting at the end of this month, the "news" article was put out to help the company's case to keep it's pilots earning less than minumum wage......

Hope that helps.

Nailed it.

I remember flight training at GLA in '97...lots of coughing on company frequency. The next day: massive sickout and consequential mass-firings. Got the contract done soon after, with 100% re-hiring and expungement of discipline.

That's what just about EVERY program supporter says. When it comes to pork barrel spending, it doesn't get much saltier than EAS in places with roads and bigger hubs ~2hrs away. In Alaska at least we don't have roads and by air is the ONLY way to reach villages reliably. I could see some kind of EAS for HEMS service only in some places, but passenger planes? Get a charter, take a shuttle, or drive the 2hrs and stop having the taxpayer foot the bill. Sure, plenty of things in the budget need to be cut, in defense and social spending, but EAS in the lower 48 is pretty much a no-brainer.

100% nailed it.. this story doesn't appear to be anything more than that. And I hope if this "news" happens to come up in the next meeting, I sure wish that the union slamms their fist and calls BS as loudly as they can. ABQ had nothing to do with the sequester as it closed months before the fact.

Hopefully the NMB will consider these numbers before allowing things to continue to string along:

$7.25 (minimum wage) X 40 (hours a week) X 52 (weeks a year) = $15,080. Annual minimum wage income at 40 hours a week.

$16.24 (First Year F/O pay) X 75 (hours garuntee) X 12 (months a year) = $14,616 ($464 less than minimum wage) First Year First Officer Pay.

21 days of Reserve a month at 14 hours a day is 294 duty hours. $1,218 montly income ($16.24 X 75 hours) Divided by 294 duty hours is $4.14 an hour.

Or maybe they'll just let things string along year after year while the cost of living continues to go up.

6 months on reserve and counting for me.... But I do fly around 60 hours a month here in DEN. It seems like a lot of the reserves in DEN are getting around the same amount however I heard anywhere from 25-50 FOs won't make 1500 by August.

Maybe management can lease a fleet of IFR certified Cessna 150s. File instrument flight plans, have a second pilot as a 'safety pilot', and fly around in circles until everybody is legal.

We'll call it....Bernouli's principle! It'll be in the Geneva convention.

Brilliant!

Only one of those guys can log PIC according to FAA legal decisions.


Yeah, I know. I was bummed when I heard about it too.