Originally Posted by skyguy33

As a third year FO, I will most probably be a "yes" vote. I have read through the majority of the contract, and it seems decent. I will continue to read on my next trip. Although it does not blow anyone else out of the water, it is the best I think we will get in the foreseeable future. Simply, there hasn't been enough "good" contracts that have passed recently to make us more marketable or put us in a position to demand more (i.e. PSA, Envoy, Piedmont—and I don't blame them because they did what they needed to do). Although Skywest just got a pay raise and AWAC has their TA, our LBFO seems to closely resemble the pay rates and rules of those companies. Many will argue that our LBFO still has loop-holes and not everything they want, but the fact of the matter is, there is very little alternative. We can vote "yes" and finally have

a) pay rates that are reasonable (but not spectacular)
b) leg-by-leg cancelation pay
c) min day of 4:12 (which will either raise the credit on our crappy trips or force them to build better trips)
d) trip rig of 4:1 (again not great, but it's definitely a start)
e) duty rig of 2:1 (it'll be nice to actually get paid when on duty for 14 hours and performed 3 hours of flying)
f) higher virtual credits for training and vacation
g) 276 definitions and pretty solid language throughout (there will be loop-holes, but that's inevitable no matter how hard we try)
h) Finally premium pay for open time pick-up depending on what color flag it is (again, it's not 150 or 200 percent like some other carriers, but this is definitely better than what we currently have)
i) Parking reimbursement of 30/month or whatever it costs in your current base, whichever is higher. This is nice because a couple of our bases provide hardly any type of reimbursement
j)Paid Days Off accrual insignificantly increased (again, it's slightly better than what we currently have)
k) Golden days off-we can ask for 3 days off a few times a year and get them, which is fantastic
l) LCR-awesome callout (no less than 12 hours, and sometimes 13.5 hours). Only can be converted to SCR 3 times a month.
m) SCR is now a 2 hour callout, which is better than the current 1.5
n) Better reserve language
o) still no junior manning
p) still others

Now the bad,
a) kinda weak 401K language
b) 75% deadhead pay still (why cheap out on this?)
c) medical benefits are discussed but not fantastic
d) pay rates aren't fantastic

A lot of CAs are saying that the LBFO pay rates are insignificantly higher than our current 80-seat 175. The problem with that is that with certificate consolidation, which will happen in a year or so, all of the current 80 seat airplanes will be refitted with 76 seats for American (which also now meets DAL scope). Therefore, they will be, with or without this contract, be getting a payout to the 76 seat pay. This LBFO will then bring up that pay significantly. So even though the current LBFO CA rates aren't much higher than the current 80 seat rates, those 80 seat rates are null and void when they retrofit the airplanes.

We are all sick of the crap we've been through. The sign-on bonus is decent (wish it were paid all at once). I want a pay raise. It's not concessionary. It's an overall good contract that meets and slightly exceeds other airlines. I'm done fighting for the impossible. Back pay and Jet Blue rates are never going to happen.

Let the criticizing begin.

#yesvoter

Originally Posted by Rahlifer

I can't post internal company communications under threat of eternal fire and damnation of my soul. (If I have one left)
He's really taken to a one sided propaganda parade since walking away from negotiations last month. A lot of folks are gonna take the bait since they'll be "off to a major in 6 months anyways".
The bonus bucks dangling out front cleverly conceal some pretty sneaky language that essentially puts all pilots on reserve at the company's discretion, can arbitrarily cancel your assigned vacation, and has several loop holes that effectively nullify our scope clause. We could sublease out our entire fleet.

That's just a few nuggets off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by Coolbeans

How is republic going to pay for this? If they can suddenly afford this contract that means they have been making a killing on yall previous contract. This smells of the whole pinnacle situation all over again.

Originally Posted by FEtoFO

The proposal is available online now. I just took a quick look, and it is a big improvement for you guys, but the language is very vague. Also why vote yes for something the negotiating committee did not propose? That would be enough for me to vote no! I hope the IBT does not allow a vote.

Originally Posted by ThreeStripe

Exactly. Republic will get seabury to orchestrate a bankruptcy as soon as bedford decides he doesn't need this contract anymore.

Originally Posted by FirstClass

To what end? Why go through the trouble of negotiating a contract. The only benefit of bankruptcy is to impose this contract on the pilots against their will should they decide to vote it down.

Originally Posted by skyguy33

a) pay rates that are reasonable (but not spectacular)

Originally Posted by FEtoFO

The proposal is available online now. I just took a quick look, and it is a big improvement for you guys, but the language is very vague. Also why vote yes for something the negotiating committee did not propose? That would be enough for me to vote no! I hope the IBT does not allow a vote.