How pinnacle pilots get a contract
 

The longer I am here, the more I am convinced that pilots will have to stop helping management get bigger bonuses and more money while they sue us. Case in point: I believe we were the 3rd best on-time performance airline (Including the big boys) in America for the 4th quarter last year (someone can correct that if wrong). All the while, management stalls contract talks, buys new comp.'s and new airframes for them while screaming that we have no money or that it's just not "our company philosophy to pay anything but industry average". While this has been going on, what have we pilots been doing? Not flying the a/c in accordance w/the FOM or AIM. Capt.'s drop the brake as soon as the door is closed, not waiting for the a/c to be "secure". We taxi at the speed of light instead of a brisk walk (I guarantee, if you taxi in DTW or IND at a brisk walk, there will be no on time flights there). The majority of CA's do not stop the a/c to verify the taxi route on the chart before proceeding. There are plenty of times when flying LRC would be more safety prudent than flying plan. Most guys agree that actually being a profesional who is "by the book" is more important than getting that on time performance...and the on time numbers are WAY down, but there is more room for a higher saftey awareness. I BEG our ALPA representatives here at Pinnacle to come out with an official ALPA letter to all 9e pilots to fly with many saftey reminders in this time of stress and duress. (Make sure your crew eats...do not taxi in w/o required crew and equiptment on the ground--ie brief of hand signals etc...). We need an official letter or we will stay fragmented in implimentation. The company even said recently in their last conference call that we pilots must put all the litigation and frustration out of our minds and focus on safety. All I'm saying is let's make it official from the alpa side with many reminders and suggestions to improve "Safety".

Good idea. I have seen other Pinnacle pilots mention this.

But remember, this all starts with YOU!!
"You must be the change you wish to see." -Ghandi

I would love to start this, but it must come from alpa leadership or it's just another guy crying and more fragmented action. We need an official letter sent to EVERY pilot to pull everyone together. There is NO reason not to do this. We are talking about being more professional and more safe. Who would not be on board? Including management

Yet I am sure people (CA and FO's) pick up open time, schedule vacations for off days, accept extensions and jr manning, and Part 91 repo flights at the end of the day. At United the company was on their knees after 3 months of no extra work. Start there:p.

not a bad idea, but tough to organize legally...plus, we are forced into extensions and limited by our contract to only being able to refuse 1 per month. If we cannot (and I'm not saying we can't) get a safety awareness initiated, there's no hope of not picking up extra work. Let's start by being better pilots regardless of time performance. If we can get galvanized there, then maybe other avenues of creative, legal, contract solutions would open up.

Does management ever discipline pilots because they have a tendency to be late at the gate. i.e. 70% on time rate.

What keeps pilots from consistently flying/taxiing and etc slower than needed?

first, if we had a 70% on time rate, I think our mgmt. would be ecstatic at this point..I believe it's b/t 50-60% for Jan. And not much keeps us from taxiing slow...the flying part doesn't make that much diff. maybe 10mins on an average flight. As long as you have a good reason/far/company policy to back you up, which we do, you are safe. The prob.'s come when you start doing devious things on purpose to sabotauge the a/c or airline
All that I propose is to stop "helping the comp." by dropping the brake early, pushing back w/o ALL required items, writing up ALL maint. items...and basically being VERY safety conscious (ie. anal) about how we operate. By being extreamly professional, the on time performance would plummet to at least the 30-40% range. It would certainly get mgmt.'s attention

How did ASA pull it off?

not sure...any asa guys on here? also, what was most effective in getting a contract and how long did it take the pilot group becoming active before you had one?

....Also Refuse Tanker Fuel When Ever Possible.....9-E prides themselves in Tanker-ing and ask it be done always and often...

This will hurt the bottom line very quickly