GeeWizDriver

I agree with you completely. And yet there are those that insist it would be seen by an arbitrator as a job action. I don’t mind rolling those dice.

jtf560

These are the things we will need to do. Along with cutting back on the higher days schedules. That said, the union can't tell us to do all these things without getting sued by the company for a job action. They can throw out a bunch of hints about not flying hungry as a safety issue and send out lots of reminders or maybe even start a mx "did you know" series of emails that subtly show the direction we need to go. They absolutely cannot tell us we shouldn't extend or that we should bid to lower day per period schedules without getting smacked down.

The survey about the VED LOA was a wise choice. If the majority say give notice now or let it expire, they can simply show the results in court if the company tried to sue for that. There would still be many extenders, but I'm sure they would lose a giant chunk of that help overnight if the rates go back to normal. I don't agree that any of these things should be an offense that they would probably lose, but that is unfortunately how things are stacked against organized labor. I know what I say in the cockpit as a regular line pilot may hopefully help influence behavior and I would suggest everyone to discuss these sorts of things often since leadership cannot. They have bought a couple of billboards near Bridgeway and hopefully more shots across the bow will start coming from our union.

Peabody17

Totally Agree!!!

HeavyD

+1
This needs to be at the top of every weekly union email. Minus the last sentence. Additionally, this should be emphasized at recurrent dinners.

FracCracka

Let’s not get carried away. There’s plenty of food in the galley. Do you like butter toffee peanuts? If not, Swedish fish have been back for a while. Just one more leg. One more VED/VAWD. Just get them through the peak season, then they’ll really reward us.

jtf560

Where's the sarcasm emoji? I'm pretty sure you are joking. It's going to start getting ugly. There are a lot of very frustrated pilots out there who are sick of getting hammered day after day at work for diminished returns between lack of support from the company, sufficient inflation protection, and lack of FDP. The lack of FDP while still having long duty days with lots of large time shifts is not sitting well with the newer pilots who are accelerating their departures or the long time pilots who are getting ready to fight and are starting to let the lack of support culminate in train wrecks instead of going out of their way to keep things running smoothly. This is going to be an ugly busy season without management throwing a lot of money our way AND getting operations back on track. Unfortunately, it is starting to look like management hasn't learned from past run ins with the union.

ExecJet99

I agree with everything you said. Let’s hope our union actually does something. For the record I thought FDP was a bad idea for many reasons and have said so to everyone that listens including FO’s who made more than me. I’m on the 52 and don’t chase it. I ask them to look at their base pay because that’s all you can count on when they were telling me they don’t want to leave for the Airlines. Seem I was right. Now they are seeing all their buds making way more at a regional and will be at a major on 4 years. If I was 10 years younger I’d be gone.

MinRest

This is cyclical. This exact same thing was happening in 2015 and beyond, before FDP came along. Whether it was flying or not, the company would get its 12 hours+ out of you. FDP only masked the issue with money. But without FDP, the smoke and mirrors disappear. Things won't change until the metal and bags of blood stop moving.

Seems like some weird and interesting stuff going on there. Fantasies of doubling the fleet size and hiring almost 700 pilots next year would indicate that the money is flowing like wine for the company, yet once again it seems like those profits are made on the backs of pilots who get the scraps. IBBs and IBIs need to stop and the union really needs to take management to task this time for some real change.

ExecJet99

They don’t have any money. They are spending it on hangers and aircraft and training pilots for no reason when they dump entire fleets. (But that part is a Berkshire shell game)

FracCracka

What gave it away? Next tour I start setting the brake for food. Lovey and Thurston can eat their shrimp cocktail while one of us runs to Bojangles for a nice healthy deep fried sack of slop.

At this point they won’t have to retire me with an MRA because I’ll have a heart attack soon anyway.