Point Zero Zero Two.

I’m an outsider, so forgive my ignorance, but what is illegal about the company offering premium pay for open time?

I’m assuming your contract has criteria that has to be satisfied before the company can offer premium pay???

For one it circumvents seniority and the way open time at premium pay is suppose to be given out and a violation of our CBA.

Exactly, thank you Hyper. Why have a CBA if the company just wipes their a$$ with it continuously

The implementation LOA prohibits the company from having a first come first serve premium open time pot until certain other provisions of the CBA (beneficial to pilots) are implemented. 5 times now, when the company is in a jam with staffing, they have done it anyway. This is 150% pay, mind you, and not subject to seniority. What IS allowed under the CBA/implementation LOA is VDA (volunteer on a day off) at 190% (soon to be 200%), or reserve support augmentation at 4:12/150% if not used, or what you actually credit at 175% if used. VDA is seniority based.

While premium FCFS pays pilots extra, those pilots would be paid VDA rates (assuming they signed up for it) and used in seniority order. So the company is blatantly violating the implementation LOA, to their benefit from a staffing standpoint and cost standpoint, knowing that the grievance won’t be heard until September, at which point premium FCFS is turned on anyway, and knowing under the RLA there isn’t much that can be done about it.

Ironically, right around the time of one of the violations not too long ago, they sent an email out about “integrity” with respect to picking up trips for the following day knowing their trip was delayed and might make them illegal (pay protecting the pilots). JB doesn’t update their delays in their systems, allowing guys to take advantage of that. All JB has to do is be more transparent with delays, instead of milking the ol 15 minute rolling delay, or not posting a downline delay they know will happen, but they choose not to. They speak out of both sides of their mouth with their “values” and only care about values when it benefits them, or use them to threaten pilots who take advantage of their lack of integrity (with respect to operationally delays), even if their own system says it’s a legal pickup.

Also, right before I think the second one, guys were still bargaining with crew services for double pay to help out. Crew services would agree to it over the phone, then they’d get paid straight pay. The chief pilot sent out an email saying “crew services can’t negotiate extra pay, you will only get paid in accordance with the CBA. No outside deals anymore.” Then they throw out a deal clearly in violation of the CBA right after bc they were in a jam and needed help. Then they realized there’s nothing much ALPA can do about it other than file a grievance, and started doing it a lot.

There are a few other nuances, but that’s the gist.

So pathetic, and honestly what's the best case out of this? We grieve it, and then what?

Not only are they blatantly violating the CBA, but they're picking and choosing times and positions for this 'premium pay' in order to save the operation. "Only CA's in XYZ base before 9am". Total BS. If they can't even staff with VDAs then they need to hire/upgrade more.

My last couple trips were with bottom of the barrel junior captains on VDAs (Cold called, didn't even put in for VDA) being paid VDA rates for 2 and 3 full days. I don't blame the CAs one bit because that is serious money for them, but we clearly have a severe staffing issue in a specific seat that isn't being addressed.

So does this set legal precedent the next time the company says something not in the pilots favor that’s already implemented in the contract, that we don’t feel like doing? The are sending multiple messages and setting a pattern of letting us know, it’s ok to not follow the contract and that it’s perfectly fine.

+2...........

To stop paying your mortgage isn't immoral, because this outcome is part of the contract you've entered with your bank. The penalty could be high, however, you're within your rights to do this. It's part of the agreement.

In much the same way, grievance/arbitration is part of the contract. The company can do whatever it wants as long as it's willing to bear the cost of the remedies. If ALPA wanted zero violations, they should have included more costly language. There's also no language against individual pilots picking up incentive open time. It was offered by the company in violation of the contract, resulting in a grievance per the agreement. No such agreement exists on the level of individual pilots.

Additionally, we know how people are going to behave. Banking on the entire pilot group to operating in lockstep is naive. The solution lies in the contract and its remedies, and not in yelling "Stop picking up incentive time!" on the internet.

And, considering that many pilots picking up this time live in base, and that JetBlue's bases exist in some of the most expensive areas in the country, I can't really blame them for this. To the commuters, these people could say, "Stop artificially subsidizing the company's labor supply!", but they don't.

That is definitely a lot of $h/t