From the LOA:
Airline Tickets. The pilot shall be entitled to one set of round-trip business class tickets to position him and his dependents from his permanent residence to the FDA at the beginning of his assignment and from the FDA to his next base at the conclusion of his assignment.

Does this mean the pilots moving to an FDA get Deadhead pay? I'll bet it is news to the company and ALPA. Do his dependents get Deadhead pay, since they are being positioned? The ALPA lawyers don't know if we will be paid DH pay on STVs. JL knows but we are either afraid to ask or we didn't like the answer.

You aren't Deadheading to or from revenue operations you are being positioned for an FDA. The language changed for a reason, what was the reason?

I'll say it again, I think we will be paid DH hours but I would like to see it in writing before 10 Aug.

Who hijacked Albie's login? This sounds like a change in heart from your earlier posts.

<< Geez...do you wanna let the Chinese fly the freight? You gonna rob your buddy of his $2700? >>

Again -- FedEx will NEVER be able to hire Chinese pilots to fly freight around Asia. When Shanghai Airlines has to contract with Mesa for American pilots to fly their cross-border routes because they don't have pilots who speak English, believe me, FedEx can't find them, either. Chinese pilots all come from the military, where they are NOT taught to speak English. Reason? If they don't speak English, they can't defect. If they try to cross a border and can't communicate their intent, they'll be shot down, and they know it. So Chinese pilots are NOT a threat to our jobs.

There is plenty of flexibility to make this work -- give us a package that lets us live a decent life and keep our Federal tax break for living on the other side of the world from our families and homes, and it'll work just fine. That's a small price for a Fortune 500 blue-chip company to pay for its ambitious program of global expansion. If you want to make an omelet, you gotta break a few eggs!!! It's a cost of doing business!

You may be being sarcastic too, but just in case...that previous post was extremely tongue in cheek.

Just checking.

Must say, as I've talked with a few old-heads, I've had second thoughts.

The concern folks have over Us not being used is not unrealistic, which is what most folks are scared of.

Problem is, if we say yes, we don't negotiate above and beyond in the next contract, we negotiate to regain what we gave up in the LOA.

OK ... how about Cathay pilots that retire at 55 years old then? Or Gemini or Atlas or Polar or ????? They speak english and aren't afraid of being shot down? Or for that matter, how about the Mesa bubbas you mention that already live in China?

Don't get me wrong, I think the LOA is hugely inadequate and will vote no but I'm a slight bit concerned about what the company's alternatives are. I hope calm heads will prevail and the company will come back with a better offer but numerous union and managements types say they won't. We've seen them make offers in the past and when we said no they said OK (think postal freight LOA here). They had another plan all along ...


Mark

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? What exactly did we lose with the postal freight? We didn't agree to fly extra and the company did the deal with USPS anyway. We had to hire extra pilots for the extra flying. There was a significant movement in seat progression. Finally, we fly the same number of days per month as we did in 1991, 1995, 2000, and 2005. If you don't believe me, go rummage through some of the old bid packs.