Cancelation pay is a MUST and we won't bend on that. Rates are one thing but when things cancel and your month goes to hell in a hand basket you'll think about how cancelation pay goes a long way to improve life. Just today with all the wx in the Midwest I lost 6+ hours of pay. So now to get that back ill have to burn time off just to make that up. So yes it is a big deal. I'm tired of this company making Kirby and me losing it. It has created a culture of passing on the buck for write ups to. Certain people don't want to write things up because they don't want to lose money. Tell me how that's safe? People ask us why we can't pull of what AA pilots just did, well that's why. So this contract needs to get done and it needs to be done right. And until this company has a recruiting problem, nothing will change and they won't give us the contract that is industry standard or slightly above. There's no incentive for the company. So all people who don't work here or see how things work first hand should rethink their comments against this pilot group. And for those considering this company should really look elsewhere until its all sorted out. When I got here things weren't too bad, and people were convinced this would be finished quickly. Guess what. We were wrong. So take that for what it is. And if I could go somewhere else I would. I am trying...so to each their own.

I take it you didn't read or understand how RAH works. The growth means very little to anyone not hired into the RW side. Those hired into the Q400 or E145 face a brutal ride.

Refuse to believe what you want. That website is conservative if anything. PM me if you have further questions, I'll be glad to tell you what this place is like.

Youre right. FO pay that results in a take home pay of 700 - 1000 a month is pathetic.

Trip trades or drops are nearly impossible (at least on the RW certificate). If you try to trade a 4 day for a 4 day operating on the same day in the same base, the software must first put your trip into opentime and instantaneously put the new trip on your schedule. Scheduling sets the minimum reserve coverage artificially high to negate this ability. So if you tried this trade you would be denied "due to minimum reserve coverage". I stopped trading/swapping on FLICA about 1.5 years ago with over 400 denials and ~5 approvals.

For vacancies we want the ability to bid on our own certificate (not consistently applied right now, see Q-400 bidding), and during displacements, to any certificate in our base and/or any base we can hold by seniority. Also, there should be a system-wide bid probably once a year.

The trip rig is useless for most trips. So either your company has a lot of 15 hour four days or your trip rig is also useless. We no longer have a pairing analyzer but 80 TAFB is common, under this rig, you'd get about 16hrs credit. That would not encourage efficient trips, nor would it compensate pilots reasonably for their time away from base.

However, more directly, the conflicts lie in micro-management and animosity. We do not trust our managers to do the right thing (morally or operationally). I've talked to quite a few pilots that would vote "no" to anything, just to punish the company for this abuse. Personally, I intend to vote "no" and consider voting "yes" on day 3 of the strike, if the proposal includes all the main things I'm looking for. On the other hand, the company does not like the union, and does not believe that the pilots are as ****ed as the union portrays.

In the words of Bryan Bedford. "We'll negotiate when there is a release [cooling off period]. That's the way the system works." --jumpseating in May 2010.

This is a big problem we're currently seeing over at XJT. Our min credit for a four day is 15 hours. We're seeing more and more 12 hour four days coming up, particularly in relief lines. I have seen the occasional 8 hour four day in recent months. We also have no min trip pay for 3 day trips. Our min day off pay is 3.75 hours. I'd say our average TAFB is now hovering around 78hrs. The new duty time and rest rules coming in next year will only make productivity worse for us.

With the addition of Caesar's flying we've see massive dip in productivity. My friend recently had a 3hr scheduled 4 day. That's with no cancellations. Luckily he is on RSV so he got 16 hours towards guarantee but he won't break guarantee so...

This is exactly why I would vote NO to the LBFO. Any trip rig that doesn't value my TAFB is an automatic no because of the new rest rules. Either schedules will be more efficient or they better give me at least a 5 hour min day. With the way this company forces us to fly 82 hrs a month if we don't have high credit trips we will all be flying 18-19 days a month for min guarantee.

Another thing is that because of said rest rules I can at least envision the outstation bases drastically reducing due to the fact they won't be able to start you at 5am and duty you for 14 hours like they can today. This company will do what costs them least and I sure hope the outstation model costs them. The reason the trips are utter $#!+ here is because of the outstations.

Finally, there are many areas in that LBFO where the current contract is better. A 2003 contract better than a 2013 LBFO. Think about that. I for one will not sell out the reserve pilots. I also will not vote for anything that doesn't allow for an open scheduling system where you can see where you fall on reserve and the number of reserves in base. Reserves should also have the option to bid First out, last out, etc. We also should not have to give up our no hot reserve LOA. In the LBFO the company wants hot reserve pilots again.

Agreed. LBFO was regressive except for pay rates. There were a few other improvements but the leverage given to the company was astounding in both the LBFO and the Union proposal.

Union gave up that leverage to get those rates, particularly for the lifers. I'd rather keep our current rates for CA with a $4-5 an hr increase for FOs and get duty rigs, min day, transparent scheduling, cancellation pay, ability to trade trips on flica without company intervention, 150% pay for open time pickup on a day off, ability to slide a vacation week + or - 3 days, better healthcare, better retirement, a true seniority based vacancy/displacement system. Until I don't see that as a minimum it is a NO