I'm completely stunned and embarrased that we have a 3 page thread discussing whose MEC said what. Its a bit like watching school girls argue about whose mother loves them more. Honestly, who cares? NOTHING matters until official notification is sent from management!

Well I don't know how it works on the ASA side but at XJT we are used to getting a "heads up" from the union about "possible" issues down the road. If management is mumbling about "maybe" reducing head count, our union will typically mention it so people can get ready even if it's not official.

If you read the company email from CT today, it certainly seems to me that there is still the possibility of a reduction after the crj700's are gone in May.

That wasn't the point of my post. I was explaining how stupid it is that pilots are arguing about whose MEC said what. I don't care whether or not furloughs are coming because I can't control it. No one should care. If someone is affected by a staffing reduction, they'll move over to fly the ERJ and life goes on. Layoffs and furloughs have been a way of life in this industry for decades and you just have to play the cards you're dealt. Bickering about when MOU's were drafted and which MEC is right or wrong doesn't solve a single issue; it just makes people look unprofessional.

More important than any of this is the unification of our pilot group. Guess what doesn't help that cause? Arguing about worthless E-mails. We need to stop peeing in each other's cereal and worry about the important things.

As a side note, I don't know why so many CRJ drivers are up-in-arms about the MEC E-mail from the XJT guys. When I read it, I knew immediately that they were just conveying the provisions of a new agreement that is now in place to PROTECT our CRJ pilots. Its a good thing and I don't think anyone needs to be upset about it. In fact, I'd probably take a voluntary transfer to the ERJ if I were near the bottom of the CRJ list.

Bottom line is that no one will be losing their jobs. Even if there are "furloughs" from the CRJ list, its more similar to a displacement than anything else.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year. Kick back, have a cerveza, and don't sweat the small stuff.

I can't argue with any of that.

I would think that a May reduction will not occur as we will need everyone for June, July and August. We were scrambling this past summer, so with attrition, we are probably ok through August at a minimum.

Oh you know an extra 200 block hours will appear from a rainbow in July and we will get a memo saying "It doesn't matter how we got here".

Have you seen those stickers floating around?

Well, you know what...

Managing expectations is part of the task of handling communications.

And, when a party - not involved in the staffing element at one operation - jumps the gun and makes a clear statement - as if it were to be fact, that was never fact or exercised on - I think we all do a disservice to ourselves and our pilot groups if we stand by and make excuses as if such statements should be appropriate.

I won't get into the details, but it would have been nice if some coordination of publicly dessiminated statements by an MEC Chairman are at least shared internally before one makes a fool of them self, especially when it has more to do with the issues at the "other" side of the house.

Somewhat of a professional courtesy, that has been extended in the past when data was going the other way. Guess it was a bit expected that it could occur in the other direction as well.

However, it's really not an issue at present. And trust that this has been discussed internally and opinions have been made regarding similar behavior in the future.

No furloughs, for now. Sure, the Acey folks dodged a bullet - but it's not rocket science that this leadership have ran our Dulles base extremely thin since the beginning. It made absolutely ZERO sense to just reduce bodies without first trying to establish a good staffing element out of Dulles going forward. Your (Acey) IAD LEC and Scheduling and MEC made that case quite clear to the Company. I could toss numbers out there, but when line holders are having to meet a 95+ hour threshold, working minimum days off, and still not enough reservist in the domicle - something is wrong. The movement of these bodies will bring that threshold value down substantially to provide for much greater flexibility amongst line holders (max time off vs max credit) as well as adding much needed reserve bodies in both category.

It's a positive direction.

Just wanted say thanks for the ride to tge crew of the ASA flight from GRR to DTW today! Not sure if you are APCers or not. Also, thanks for your support in our struggles, sorry to hear about yours. We will try to "hold the line" and vote no to concessions.

Yes! They were awesome!

Surreal1221,

You seem like someone who's actually informed. Has it occurred to you that maybe there's not much communication between the MECs because the asa MEC keeps walking away from every meeting?

Here's the facts, the larger group (XJT) is not willing to take any concessions of any type. That includes PBS, pay, or any work rule that diminishes QOL. As some of your current and former union guys say "we are not getting on board with it". It's really that simple. Your MEC needs to get proactive at getting improvements to what we have, the financial state of the company is not their job. So they need to start playing ball with the guys that are trying to improve the landscape for the pilots (our guys). Maybe then you'll see some communication. Until then you can have your p.o.s. contract, and we'll keep ours, two separate lists, and we'll continue operating as one happy dysfunctional family. What do you think?

How about you get your house in order before you go pointing fingers?