As near as I can tell, no such thing exists - but it should. A fellow pilot is looking to organize a grass-roots campaign to set this up. Eventually, the union will be pulled into this, but for now, we're a bit disappointed our MEC has stuck their heads in the sand and not prepared for this possibility already.

My good fellow proposes that we set up an account with a Credit Union to place funds into and maybe elect an administrator to distribute the funds on a monthly basis to our furloughed pilots. The thought was to ask $50/month per active pilot to be placed into the fund. I realize this will amount to very little to distribute but you've got to start somewhere!

Question for all is - what is a reasonable amount to ask and how many do you think would participate? What rules should govern who gets what and how much? Should we trust union involvement with this? (remember, they've already dropped the ball)

I'm interested in your discussion - for the ASA pilots on here, PM me if you are willing to participate in making donations and/or help organize and set things up.

Thanks!
Marc Nicholson
ASA FO

I'm really sorry to hear about your furloughs, but shouldn't this question/suggestion be directed to ALPA???

Not to sound negative but you know the high up boys and girls that wont ever be furloughed unless the airline tanks arent gonna give up a cent towards a furlough fund......... especially after they lost their minds about paying an extra 50 a year to fly for free around the world.

Would be nice to have some sort of a fun to help with the shock of losing your job.

Good luck to all.

oops, obviously fun = fund

My friend and I talked about this - he has more faith than I do and suggested 3/4 of our group might participate. I'm leaning toward 1/4 myself. Regardless, there will be at least two of us!

Don't count on JP paying anything towards that. He's still bent out of shape about paying for his travel bennies.

When I was furloughed at DAL '01-'05, the pilots had an assessment done to fund an emergency fund to help distressed pilots and their families. As I recall this was a loan that was given to help pilots with financial issues. It was not required to be paid back until you were re-employed at DAL. Also, there was an assessment that provided all furloughed pilots paid-for COBRA benefits until you found yourself able to pay for insurance again. Many pilots stayed on that until they returned because the lower paying jobs they found caused a financial hardship on them even though those jobs provided health insurance.

Good luck to all affected.

I think 1/4 is an overshoot.

find out what % supported RJDC and slash that to almost nothing and I'd think that would be close.

If the sr. pilots at Acey are as concerned for fuloughees as much as the guys at Comair, I would guess a furlough relief fund would appear about the time that pigs fly.

Good luck guys and welcome to club furlough. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Myself, along with gtechpilot, will be meeting with Delta Community Credit Union next week to try and set up an ASA Furlough Fund account. Hopefully, we can encourage donations into the account from fellow ASA pilots to help defray the cost and mitagate the effects of the furlough, until such time that a recall is made.

Setting up the account will be easy......the hard part will be encouraging folks to chip in. The next hardest part will be figuring out how to disburse the funds in accordance with the Federal Labor Laws. BUT Where there's a will, there's a way. ASA has never furloughed up until this point, but these are unprecedented economic times. We can certainly show our fellow pilots that we care about there situations.

The ASA MEC has shown interest in assisting in our efforts, and we welcome their help. If anyone else is interested, please email me at [email protected] with your thoughts and ideas.

Please remember, none of us are immune to furlough in this industry. Please consider helping where you can. More info to follow.........

Robert Banks
ASA First Officer

They had a voluntary donation for that Eddie Cordle guy who got sick to donate vacation hours/sick hours. Perhaps something along the lines of that ?