ASA Furlough Fund??
 

As near as I can tell, no such thing exists - but it should. A fellow pilot is looking to organize a grass-roots campaign to set this up. Eventually, the union will be pulled into this, but for now, we're a bit disappointed our MEC has stuck their heads in the sand and not prepared for this possibility already.

My good fellow proposes that we set up an account with a Credit Union to place funds into and maybe elect an administrator to distribute the funds on a monthly basis to our furloughed pilots. The thought was to ask $50/month per active pilot to be placed into the fund. I realize this will amount to very little to distribute but you've got to start somewhere!

Question for all is - what is a reasonable amount to ask and how many do you think would participate? What rules should govern who gets what and how much? Should we trust union involvement with this? (remember, they've already dropped the ball)

I'm interested in your discussion - for the ASA pilots on here, PM me if you are willing to participate in making donations and/or help organize and set things up.

Thanks!
Marc Nicholson
ASA FO

I'm really sorry to hear about your furloughs, but shouldn't this question/suggestion be directed to ALPA???

Not to sound negative but you know the high up boys and girls that wont ever be furloughed unless the airline tanks arent gonna give up a cent towards a furlough fund......... especially after they lost their minds about paying an extra 50 a year to fly for free around the world.

Would be nice to have some sort of a fun to help with the shock of losing your job.

Good luck to all.

oops, obviously fun = fund

My friend and I talked about this - he has more faith than I do and suggested 3/4 of our group might participate. I'm leaning toward 1/4 myself. Regardless, there will be at least two of us!

Don't count on JP paying anything towards that. He's still bent out of shape about paying for his travel bennies.

When I was furloughed at DAL '01-'05, the pilots had an assessment done to fund an emergency fund to help distressed pilots and their families. As I recall this was a loan that was given to help pilots with financial issues. It was not required to be paid back until you were re-employed at DAL. Also, there was an assessment that provided all furloughed pilots paid-for COBRA benefits until you found yourself able to pay for insurance again. Many pilots stayed on that until they returned because the lower paying jobs they found caused a financial hardship on them even though those jobs provided health insurance.

Good luck to all affected.

I think 1/4 is an overshoot.

find out what % supported RJDC and slash that to almost nothing and I'd think that would be close.

http://oil-works.blogspot.com/2008/02/flying-pig.html

If the sr. pilots at Acey are as concerned for fuloughees as much as the guys at Comair, I would guess a furlough relief fund would appear about the time that pigs fly.

Good luck guys and welcome to club furlough. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Myself, along with gtechpilot, will be meeting with Delta Community Credit Union next week to try and set up an ASA Furlough Fund account. Hopefully, we can encourage donations into the account from fellow ASA pilots to help defray the cost and mitagate the effects of the furlough, until such time that a recall is made.

Setting up the account will be easy......the hard part will be encouraging folks to chip in. The next hardest part will be figuring out how to disburse the funds in accordance with the Federal Labor Laws. BUT Where there's a will, there's a way. ASA has never furloughed up until this point, but these are unprecedented economic times. We can certainly show our fellow pilots that we care about there situations.

The ASA MEC has shown interest in assisting in our efforts, and we welcome their help. If anyone else is interested, please email me at [email protected] with your thoughts and ideas.

Please remember, none of us are immune to furlough in this industry. Please consider helping where you can. More info to follow.........

Robert Banks
ASA First Officer

They had a voluntary donation for that Eddie Cordle guy who got sick to donate vacation hours/sick hours. Perhaps something along the lines of that ?

Why worry about Federal Labor Laws? If its a charity or charitable fund, then there are no laws governing how you disperse the funds. If you do it independently of the company (which sounds pretty likely) then no Labor Laws, Federal of otherwise, apply in any way, shape or form.

Finally a worthwhile thread in the Regional Forum. Not only will I sticky this, but I will donate once the account is properly set up. And I challenge everyone on APC to donate as well, particularly those who still have jobs. You never know when your number is up. We are living in an unusually extraordinary time; you would have to be comatose or living in a cave to not know that. So, if you can help, I say why not?

It is a good idea but it wouldnt be right if a company required its pilots to put into a furlough fund. It is a persons responsibility to prepare themselves for events such as job loss like this. Not trying to sound like an insensitive jerk, just being realistic.

lol your outta your mind if you think this idea will take off...
That's what unemployment is for. And that's what all of us other pilots are surviving off of.

I am all about helping my fellow acey pilots! I think we need to put a donation box in the lounge or find some easy way to donate. I would be screwed if I got the F call today! With my home and car payment and other bills it would be hard to make ends meet with only 30 days notice. I think it would mean a lot to the affected pilots that there fellow "Acey" pilots are willing to help them through the tough times! Lets bring some professionalism back to our job and help some of our own!

I'M IN!

That might cover some stuff but with F/O pay they might get $800 month in unemployment. Hey my house payment is 1,200 month alone! Thanks for the negativity! From what I hear BH has already supported the idea and is willing to help make it happen

Thanks vagabond - your help is greatly apreciated!


Thanks for the suggestion - we will also work with the company to see if we can't offer other options like payroll deduct or cashing in and donating extra vacation days.

trackpilot - sorry to hear you're on the street. Unemployment is a pitiful sum and you deserve more support. I think Georgia provides less than $600 a month for 1st year FO. Hard to survive off of that!

I'm in FL and from what I was told FL max is around $250 max after TAX each week.

Sorry - typo on my part. I think Georgia's max is similar. Weekly amount for our FOs is actually ~$125 last time I looked at it.

Update..........

We've been in contact with a financial institution and are awaiting some guidance on how the fund can be set up and held. Also, I am seeking legal advice on whether the administration of the fund should be accomplished by forming a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Obviously, a single individual cannot control the funds. If so, it will take some work to get a 501(c)(3) in place.

We are also working with the company to try and get some type of voluntary payroll deduction in place. We've also suggested donating vacation time as well.

This could turn into a long lasting fund that could protect in the future as well.

If anyone has any constructive advice, please pass it on.

The Delta pilots have a Charitable Fund set up and would probably offer you advise / help on setting up your own. Also, you will want to get some ideas on how to fairly manage the money so that you spread the benefit around evenly. Others know the history better than I, but I think they helped with medical insurance expenses and things like that. Or, just take the donations, work out a ratio of days off and pay benefits monthly, etc...

Make sure your administrators are volunteers accountable. Know going into this that someone will accuse you of malfeasance and don't be surprised when it happens.

What you are doing is a very good thing.

Here's come contact info.

Delta MEC Office
100 Hartsfield Centre Parkway Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30354
Toll Free: 1-800-USA-ALPA
Local: 404-763-4925
Fax: 404-763-4975

Set it up so we can do transfers from our Delta Credit Union account and I'll stick some cash in.

Another thing you can do is offer up some of your buddy passes to help people get home that might be stuck in ATL.


Good luck brothers and sisters!
~m

Chief pilot told me that if we need to fly for other job interviews or something like moving back home after 2/8/09 let them know. Said that company can issue out a non-rev pass (I guess kind of like the one we used to fly to ATL for our interview)

This is ASA's first ever furlough in the history of the Company, right?

I'm dialing the number right now. Thanks for the info. What we need the most right now is guidance. Once that is worked out, we can begin funding the account or trust or whatever we can legally do....

Correct. And hopefully the last....

No non rev benefits during furlough?!?

NOPE... That's what makes a COMA so great. I wish they would have just forced COMA us. Then we'd have flight benefits and medical. But oh nonono... we'd also accrue longevity on COMA... :mad:

You accrue longevity on furlough too.

Nope - you maintain seniority but you do not accrue longevity.

Update......

Made some contacts with a Trust Fund Management Company through an old friend. Not sure that they are the solution to administering the fund, but they did give me some advice.

Also, I was contacted by an ASA Flight Attendant who has experience in setting up a 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization. She has indicated that she would be willing to help guide us into setting up one of our own.

Finally, I contacted the Delta Air Line MEC office regarding their Emergency / Furlough Relief Fund. Since they've been down this road before, they chose to do the same thing that we are proposing. I'm Just waiting on a return phone call from the DAL Committee Chairman in charge of the fund

If they've got this thing down pat, there is no need for us to "re-invent the wheel". Hopefully, they can give us some guidance on how to get this off the ground.

More info to follow........

Yep i only get $700 a month. And trust me that doesn't come anywhere close to my monthly expenses. I'm hurting to say the least... So don't think i don't know what it feels like.
I'm just saying from what i've seen so far the majority of the pilot group in any airline is just looking out for themselves. Hence why i don't think this will work.

Have you talked to the Captains you fly with? I would like to believe what they have told me and if what they told me it their true feelings then we may get a lot of ppl putting into it. The more negative talk from ASA ppl about this, the more negative attitudes it can generate about this idea.

What's a ppl? I always thought that was short for private pilot land.

Trackpilot is right. I hope for all of the folks at ASA that this ends up working for you guys but we tried it at PSA and it FAILED miserably. We couldn't even get any of the active pilots to chip in for COBRA. Then just to add insult to injury the company told us that even though the contract says 6 months jumpseat that since we could not actually jumpseat per TSA regs that they were willing to give us 90 days non rev. Again hope it works for you but i have no faith it will.

Hmm should of thought about that before using that short hand on this webpage. PPL in aviation terms your right. PPL is short hand TX/CHAT = People. :D

Well, unless every Captain that have mentioned donating to the fund is telling me a lie to simply make me feel better. . .I've got a great feeling this will help out a number of our guys.

Why is this not being addressed through your reps and the MEC? It doesn't seem like this has been mentioned to any extent in previous posts.

A resolution should be put forward to assess the pilots say .25% for 6 months to build up a furlough pilot fund. This fund would be used to pay the COBRA benefits or any other medical premiums the pilot is able to find on his/her own if cheaper. At the end of 6 months, the MEC can assess how much is in the fund and if it is enough to pay benefits for the foreseen future. If more money is needed, it could be extended for 3 or 6 more months. These would have to be put to pilot vote but would be a short-term assessment for a specific purpose.

This is exactly what we did here at CAL.

we already pay union dues

And that is relevant to the discussion how?