For the soon to be Furloughed and Displaced Comair Pilots
 

Section 22, Subsection J

"Prior to a furlough, the Company and the Association will meet and confer to explore alternatives to the furlough such as Company Offered Leave of Absence, etc."

Well with the cola offered, I do not consider Less than 10% of the displacements and furloughs to be much of an "exploration" or and effort at all.

Where are the voluntary furloughs? Why is the "Association" in a ****ing contest with mgmt about things that we should not be worrying about? I understand that it makes SOME sense to try and get older issues fixed or what would be the purpose of making a new agreement with the company that they may not honor anyway. But really, we are talking about keeping a job here. WELL over 100 plus pilots are about to be trying to find a new way to feed themselves and their families soon. WHO CARES IF THE NEW SCHEDULING SYSTEM SUCKS....fix the job issues first!!!

So, since the Company and the Association have not lived up to my contract, I will be talking to a lawyer soon. If this lasts longer than a month, I think a lawsuit will be worth my time and effort, and I am only being displaced.

For those in this current goat rope, I would suggest doing the same. It is straight forward and simply put in the contract. I will be trying to recoup the difference in FO to CA pay for each month that this lasts. FO's should try to recoup their entire salary, as well as per diem, etc. If a voluntary furlough should magically appear, well this will then be a mute point.

Good luck to all, and to those affected at the other airlines as well.

Class action: I'm in.

This is so rediculous.

Is that note on EPIC considered official notice though? It says projected. If that isn't official, does anyone know what is? Are we supposed to get something mailed home, mailbox or what?

If you were to succussfully go through with such lawsuit, who would it go against? The company? The union? Both?

You will get a letter.

That "projected" list seems fishy to me.

I'm losing my job over this, I'm totally in.

I won't be able to afford a lawyer, because well... I'll be out of a job. :o

I've wasted enough effort in this industry...

Did anyone read what i posted the other day in Comair Updates and the MEC in the dark thread?

CALL YOUR GOD #**#&@# UNION REP.

As i posted the other day, THE LOA IN THE CONTRACT THAT TALKS ABOUT VOLUNTARY BEFORE INVOLUNTARY FURLOUGHS HAS EXPIRED. THAT IS NO LONGER VALID

LET ME REPEAT

IT IS NO LONGER VALID

ALPA HAS TO WORK ON GETTING ANOTHER LOA SIGNED WITH TH COMPANY.

Call your reps!

Somebody didn't get their nap today

I called a rep a few days ago, and I asked about the LOA, I was told by my rep that the only thing that has to be done is sign a new LOA..., was even told that it was a very easy process and could be accomplished within a matter of days, if need be. I left the call under the impression that the company is willing to sign off on this as wel, just waiting at this point. I will call again tomorrow to clarify what I was told.
If it is only a matter of the 2 sides sitting down and sigining a piece af paper that will save hundereds of jobs, things need to be rolling sooner than later!

Okay, seriously though, why do we need to call ALPA?
Do they not know that the LOA has expired? If so, I don't want them there, I want someone who knows what is going on.
Do they not know/care that we want don't want to be furloughed? If so, I don't want them there, I want someone who cares what is going on.
Do they just want to hear from us, want us to call and say hi, want recognition? If so, I don't want them there, I want someone that is there to get the job done, not to gloat on themself.

All i'm saying, is that i was feeling the same way, but hearing directly from the union what is going on, and what they're doing..is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than the rumors and inaccuracies in the forums!

It changed my mind, and made me feel a little bit better about what's going on. Furlough will happen, and ALPA/Comair will work out something with part time/voluntary stuff since BOTH sides want it (why do you think Comair hasn't just gone ahead and furloughed the 300 yet?).

I think this is the reason the furlough are taking forever to materialize.

If thats the case, and I sure hope that is the truth, then why hasn't the union stated this? Why can't they come out with one of their wonderful emails saying "guys, just hang on, we're workin on it." Why must we hear it on some super secret secure line encrypted telephone call?

Please look back a few pages on either the Comair Updates thread or the MEC in the Dark thread. It's been addressed on this forum.

They have said they're taking care of it. But everyone freaked out when they said they're going to figure out other contract issues first. For good reason, that mgmt has agreed to these things but hasn't put it in writing/is abiding by it.

I understand the unions position in fixing things in, honestly, a realistic order. If the union went ahead and dealt with the furloughs right now, you KNOW mgmt would ask for these recent contract updates / language changes to be thrown out "quid pro quo" style. Furloughs are GOING to happen no matter what, but as i said earlier. It seems clear to me that mgmt is stalling as much as they can because mgmt WANTS part time stuff. It'll happen, but like everything else regarding unions/negotiations it takes time.

PS

Union sent out a huge news letter, a lot of it is repeats from old ones..But there are several messages from the union telling everyone to relax. Remember, management WASN'T supposed to say ANYTHING about what's going on, but they did anyways. And looking at the furlough list, and the first words being "in order to keep open communication regarding the status of our crews" it seems that management is trying AND SUCCEEDING in driving a wedge between the pilot group and ALPA. This is especially true of the junior guys (myself included) who are the future of Comair (since we'll be here 15 years before upgrade).

Stay on the correct side of this battle, we need solidarity now more than ever.

Nice post Andy.

The answer to everything, just sue. Your just going to waste a ton of money and make some lawyer rich.

All it requires is them to meet. They do not have to offer anything. So why are you going to sue, and who are you going to sue?

I say management and the pilots settle this issue with a HELL IN THE CELL MATCH. No disqaulification, no count outs, falls count anywhere. Last one standing wins and determines who gets to furlough whom. I already have a suggestion you guys can use......YouTube - Batista - Theme Song

Or this guy....YouTube - edge's theme song WWE or this guy, he's really .....cool.YouTube - THE ROCK THEME 1 more, has I'm sure you want to bury management. YouTube - The Undertaker Theme Song

Well I picked the four for the pilots, I wonder, what would management pick? LOL!!

Not so sure that's a good idea. Sue ALPA, let's just say you won a suit against them and got to keep your job. How fast do you think you would be booted from ALPA? Maybe that's what you want, I don't know, but then watch how fast you are out of a job for good with any other ALPA carrier.

What are you? 8 years old or something? :rolleyes:

The lawsuit would be against the company. They are the ones utimately responsible for what is offered to the employees. If ALPA had to be put into it, oh well.

In this day and age, no company hires based on someones standing with ALPA. Throwing me out of ALPA for a lawsuit would be ILLEGAL. If I got thrown out of ALPA, that sounds like a HUGE (like my salary at a potential carrier until I was 65, plus pain and suffering, mental anguish, etc) lawsuit IF I did not get hired at another ALPA carrier, of which there is only 1 I would work for...FedEx. The other 3 carriers that I would go to are not ALPA.

The type of lawyers that I use are the ones who get paid if I get paid. Granted they take a greater percentage (usually 33 1/3%) but there is not money out of pocket.

Maybe the volutary furlough portion of the contract is void now, but nothing was "explored" to prevent furloughs, and 6.75% of the potential furloughs were offered cola!!!

6.75% That is TOTAL BULL$HIT.

Of course they wouldn't be dumb enough to fire you and say that their reason for doing so was that you sued them. In an industry held to such high standards, they would find a way to get you. Besides, ALPA would take you out of good standing or remove you from the union. Then you are left fighting the company with no respresentation. Try the company and see if they can't fire a pilot who is not represented.

of course they ARE dumb enough to fire me for that. That will just be a chance I may be taking soon.

AND It is covered in the "MEC in the dark" thread, but AGAIN, it is not my job to call the union to find out what the heck is going on. I pay A LOT of money to ALPA and it is THEIR job to inform me, PERIOD.

What would they say IF i were to waste my time and call??
"I am sorry, we do not know anything new today. We are not talking with the company right now. We are still in a ****ing contest over past items. We will worry about the furloughs and the displacements when we get the past issues solved.":)

One thing I find interesting is that the company gave a list of projected furloughs for Sept 1. It was my understanding that in order to furlough one must receive a WARN letter with 60 days notice. Anyone care to comment on the fact this has not happened?

read here maybe I missed something

Fact Sheet - The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

If you read the link you just posted, it also says that they don't have to give you that notice. The notice can be given to your UNION and I am sure that the company has given ALPA a 60 day notice when we started hearing about this over 2 months ago.

I didn't know ALPA threw out the RJDC guys. When did that happen?

Hmmm, two flavors of Kool-Aid going around here... which one has less poison in it. Ahh screw it. I'll think on my own, thank you.

I prefer grape koolaide.

Actually, no I take that back. PAOK is more familiar with my koolaide flavours better than I am apparently. Ask her.

Guys, everyone just relax and call your rep. That will give them an opportunity to pour some of that Cherry ALPA down your throat.

Then call the chiefs, or maybe even the president. Let him pour you some of that Lemon-Lime company stuff.

Or maybe it is just all the same...

LMAO!!!!!! I think it IS the same!! It all leads to death anyway, so I guess it is just which taste you want left in your mouth when you die.

Driver put the keyboard down!!! Breathe slowly, calm down. I was attempting to add a little humor to an otherwise depressing if not unfair dilema you all find yourselves in. I thought you left this thread anyway. Anyway I hope it works out for you and the rest of Comair.

No, I'm not 8 years old, but ...ITS' REAL TO ME DAMMITT!!!!!!!!!!! :p

Interesting that our displacement bid is now cancelled. I hope that it is just flat gone. Our website says it will be rebid in the future. Again, good luck to all...and keep your fingers crossed.

Does anyone over at the GO have any freakin idea what's going on anymore?

Anymore?

I don't think they've finished rebooting from the Christmas 04 shutdown...