Quote:
Originally Posted by PurpleToolBox
I don't appreciate your sarcasm. There's PLENTY to complain about with C2015 and what we lost. And just because the lay flat seat didn't or doesn't apply to you, why would you joke about that?
I disagree with you and with the others about peak. Yes, we had leverage. Lots of leverage. And people like you gave it away. Accepted the first offer without even negotiating it back to the company! C2015 was concessionary.
And none other than Fred Smith said so himself in the earnings call immediately following the TA when he was asked about the pilot contract and he referred to it as, "cost neutral" to the company.
Were you one of the four people who stood up at the MEC TA roadshow and Q&A in Germantown at the Hilton and asked the same stupid question sounding scared out of their minds, "What's going to happen to peak if we don't pass this TA!!?!?!??!"
NOTHING ... absolutely NOTHING was going to happen. The planes were going to fly just like they were before. Yes, FedEx might have canceled flights. Yes, they may have needed more contractors but the overwhelming majority of flights were going out as planned.
You never take the first offer unless it is without question a great deal. We were handed a concessionary TA and the MEC did everything they could to sell it as anything but. That's why they were sued and had to settle!
What excuse are we going to accept this time around for another concessionary contract?
So far the legacies haven't accepted lowered pay rates due to the COVID19 fallout. Good for them. Great for us. It will give us something to shoot way ahead of -- assuming the Kronan's don't find reasons to talk down expectations as they usually do.
The union MEC keeps telling us that we are united. However, the more I talk to others and read online we sure seem to be a disjointed group. We better figure out what our top ten priorities are with the next contract and have a MEC that is lockstep and unified in fighting for those top ten items -- otherwise we are screwed.
Kind of interesting that you say you disagree with me about Peak 2015, and then say Nothing was going to happen in Peak 2015...that the planes were still going to fly. Which was my point, that Mgt said CBA was a Cost neutral (considering inflation) and Mgt said they had a plan to make it through Peak if it was voted down.
No, I wasn't one of the querulous voices at our quarterly meeting in August 2015. I was there and thought the question about whether we'd be allowed to strike for Peak 2015 was idiotic. (Remember this was pre-TA being finalized)
Just as I think it's idiotic arguing that we need to strike for TA 202X to show FedEx we mean business. Whether I like it or not (and I don't) FedEx is a proxy for the US Economy. Whether I like it or not (and I don't) We operate under RLA which is a huge disadvantage for us. All it takes is one party to request mediation, and once the Feds get involved, everything runs under Fed guidance. Negotiations meetings, Fed guy can say let's take the quarter off since we're not making much progress off and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. (Other than strike illegally, and an illegal strike means no Job protection. FedEx can replace all\s0me of us and there's not a damn thing we can do about it)
You never take the first deal.
Wonder if TA 2015 verbiage was the first deal offered by management. Since the NC took the first deal, astonished that it took so long.
UPS took the "first" deal.
Shoot, we took the "first" deal in 2006 and it was overwhelmingly popular. We took the "first" deal in 2011 and it was modestly popular.
Recent airline negotiation history has far more people taking the "first" deal than kicking it back to the curb.
SWA kicked one of theirs back, but that was what their Union recommended doing.
Delta kicked one back, but that was because the Delta MEC at the time wanted to modify the profit-sharing agreement in exchange for more guaranteed pay.
People say 2015 is a concessionary contract because we only got 3% pay raises and the slope between CBAs was less than 3%. Well, Delta's subsequent agreement was for 3% raises. SWA's was 3% raises. UPS was 3% raises.
And our raises included the 4% we just experienced last November, as well as an extra 1% to the B plan January 2016 and 2020.
So, effectively, every FO just working BLG got a 5% raise this year.
Well, Lie Flat. Boggles my mind that SL never friggin asked, or documented his remembered conversation, but we LOST that grievance because the Neutral guy agreed with the Company that following historic practices might mean FedEx would have to Chase First Class service on Scheduled flights....and, rolling Deviation bank. WTF-the paragraph that says our Deviation bank should be funded with the highest class of service available\authorized is theoretically funding a rolling Deviation bank. Pay no attention to the fact if you reduce the funding available for a deviation bank there's no actual rolling bank for that to fund.
Boggles the mind. But again, Grievances are part of RLA and again, the deck is stacked against us.
Back in 2015 someone took the time to create a website, Purpleta.com. And there was another website called hiddenarrow.com. Those websites had all of the pros\cons. One of them even used a simplified Thumbs Up\Thumbs Down section by section in the TA.
Back then, I counted the Thumbs Up versus Thumbs Down, and there were slightly more Thumbs Up than Down.
There are many things Mgt was doing in 2014/15 that they rarely do now. Monday DHs out to ABC were being modified to Monday DHs out to BCD, doesn't happen now because changing that single day layover triggers an extra 3CHs.
There was an increasing number of 3 legs during the critical duty period, doesn't happen now because that automatically pays a disruption for every leg over 2.
There was an increasing number of extended turns, think MEM-ICT-FAT (see Feb 75 sucky\crappy pairing) with a 2 hour turn in Wichita. Rarely happens now because the disruption for that pays automatically (Important safety tip, doesn't pay just because it's built that way. Has to operate that way)
Disruption pay was expanded to more pay codes.
You can drop trips you don't hold guarantee for now (think MUS or MUV)
Shoot, consider the topic of this post. Go back and look at the Settlement agreement for 4A2B and compare that with the current verbiage.
Current verbiage spreads the pain across everyone. Limits carryover. Limits M\U to a positive bank balance. Limits the ability to Plus up your BLG every month.
In 2014 I flew with an FO who was *****ing about why the CBA was taking so long. Also commented that why was he limited to going negative 6, when there are plenty of one day trips that pay in excess of that. Should be 7 or 8 negative. Naively, I didn't know the negative balance reset to 0 every month. So, yes, this gent was flying an extra 18CHs every month and then complaining about the pace of negotiations.