How pinnacle pilots get a contract
#1
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: CA
Posts: 534
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".
#3
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Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: CA
Posts: 534
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
#4
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Joined APC: Nov 2005
Position: Captain
Posts: 53
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.
#5
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Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: CA
Posts: 534
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.
#7
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Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: CA
Posts: 534
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
Last edited by HIREME; 02-04-2008 at 09:07 AM. Reason: added info
#8
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Joined APC: Sep 2007
Position: CRJ FO
Posts: 362
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
#9
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Thread Starter
Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: CA
Posts: 534
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