Alright, so by crew members blocking their calendars, they deter others from soliciting trades and prevent paired crew members from viewing each other's preferences prior to the start of the trip? That's it?
I mean, if a crewmember wanted to trade or drop a trip, is there no system that allows this in say, a trade/drop/swap board type of system?

Again, apologies for the naïveté, but since we don't have the ability to see other crewmembers' calendar, I guess I don't know what I'm missing.

I was under the impression the uproar here was about transparency with respect to CBA "skirting" as it may, and the ability of others to identify these crewmembers, or at least deter them from violating provisions of the contract.

You sort of missed the boat. Transparency, allows pilots to make better decisions about the experience, familiarity, availability, health status, bidding preferences, swap possibilities, etc. While there are valid reasons to block your calendar from other pilots. Very few of those reasons are long term issues. Since only the pilots use this calendar, the blockers are only blocking other pilots. Thereby the conclusion drawn, that if you are blocking your calendar you are doing things that you don't want other pilots to know what you are doing. While always an issue, in contract time.....

We do have swap/drop etc boards and they work great for general swaps/drops, etc. But if I wanted to swap or drop, I'd look for specific people that could help me rather than a general, feel free to screw me, on the trip trade boards. Easier to solve your own problem than to hope someone will help you fix it.

There is a much longer history behind the calendar blocking. Many years ago, the calendars were open on the old UNIX green screen. We were also going through a bitter time as the crew force unionized. The company wasn't negotiating with the first iteration of ALPA. At that time, the crews were asked to enjoy their time off and fly their scheduled month. Unfortunately, there were many that took extra trips at 150 and 200% pay. That also happened during the peak holiday season. So, for about 90% of a contract cycle, pilot's don't get overly concerned about the calendar blocking, but when we should be near the end of negotiations and we are headed into peak, it naturally causes quite a bit of uncomfortable feelings.

The explanations always given are about the crazy ex or something similar. But, just like the myriad reasons that non-members give for being non-members, it generally is about the money.

Agree with everything you said except "generally"...

We weren't just "asked to enjoy" ourselves. We were released by the NMB to self-help. We had the legal right to withdraw services, and were conducting a No Draft, No Volunteer campaign.

With Open calendars then, everyone could see everyone's pay status, and the non-team players were easily identifiable.






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It is very useful for people to have their schedules open. I generally look at the FO's schedule I'm flying with, to get an idea of what they've been doing. Do they fly this trip all the time, have they just gotten off of long term sick, have they just checked out in the airplane from the 727 (uh oh), have they just had two months off. This information may not be volunteered by the other pilot.

Plus for trip trading purposes, it is very helpful. I'm not even going to ask a guy to swap if it's not a better deal for him/her. If I have no idea what else they are doing that month and if this trade would be workable for them, I'll just move to someone else and not waste my time. You suspect that people are hiding their schedules because they are doing something funky. Like calling in sick twice a month, every month. Working every day of their life (yes, people don't want to admit that). And on the MD-11, magically getting charters every single month.

There are some people that don't release their schedule OR their phone number. Now THAT is extreme jerkiness. I've been known to email someone, saying, "I was going to ask to bump you, but I can't view your schedule and I can't call you, so I asked someone else." That usually gets a quick reply.

Referenced again, can get it on green screen.
Please someone post green screen steps.

It appears that there are others who are tired of reading about how TonyC knows everything about everything.

Without making this a ****ing contest I enjoy Tony C commentary. He's very open in his beliefs and knowledgeable as well.

Some people can't stand to read the truth.