LOL. A little quick math here. If FedEx had delivered 1 million pages late instead of "THOUSANDS", we'd still only have a miss rate of only .3%. Thousands puts us in the statistically insignificant range. The comments posted to that article are refreshingly hilarious. Apparently most people are starting to remember the whole concept of personal responsibility .

I can hardly believe I'm saying that!*?

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/fearing-le...0--sector.html

I sometimes complain and whine about how Management and ALPA could do things better. I'm ALWAYS sincere about wanting more. Many of my ideas don't cost anyone money. Shouldn't we all work towards the same goal of moving the freight to our customers as efficiently as possible.

From my perspective, our lives might be much easier "if" someone in Management just made a decision to do the "right thing." Would they be risking some of their MBO bonus by actually showing some LEADERSHIP? Is there a way to have line pilot input to Management bonuses?

Among the issues that I've tried my best to take a stand on over the years ...

- At one point we probably had the worst Safety record in the industry! Was it just a coincidence that we didn't participate in well established ALPA Safety programs?

- With our time sensitive scheduling it seems to me that "the system" knows the minute we take off and accordingly, it also knows (hours in advance?) what our arrival time will be at block in. Why would we EVER have to wait as long as an hour for a lineman and stairs?

- Having been both a Navy Squadron Operations Officer and Safety Officer and having spent time at a major passenger airline, I approached Management and Training several times during my first 2 years at FedEx. "At my previous airline we had a better way of doing XYZ." I was astounded that their reaction was universally one of disinterest!*? They honestly didn't want to hear it! The message was clear ... we make TONS of money, why would we want to change anything? Shut up and color!

- At one point during my first year MD-11 f/o off-site training they literally couldn't tell me what my schedule was going to be the NEXT DAY! REALLY!*? Other airlines send you your training schedule 30 days before your training begins! They've actually done this before.

So, in all fairness, if I'm going to complain when things don't seem to be managed in a professional manner I also have to recognize when they are. It is with this thought in mind that I write this posting.

I've been out on LTD for several years now. It sometimes seems as though no one at FedEx even knows I'm out here in "retirement land" trying my best to get back to work. Fortunately, we have REALLY GOOD benefits and my LTD check shows up promptly each month. The "LTD gauntlet" isn't especially easy to navigate (it seems like someone at FedEx or ALPA would be there to coach us through the maze)?

My most recent "hurdle" came when after being out on LTD for 24 months Medicare asked if I wanted to enroll in Medicare Part B? So far as I knew I was eligible to keep my current healthcare benefits at our employee rate. Why would I want to sign up for an extra expensive Healthcare Premium every month? I politely said, "No thanks." It turns out that was the WRONG ANSWER!*?

Several months later I received a letter from FedEx stating that because I was now eligible for Medicare, that effective the first of the following month that my Anthem BC/BS would only pay as a "Secondary Payor" and that if I was not enrolled in Medicare that Anthem would only pay what they would have paid if I had Medicare coverage! I called Medicare and asked what they recommended now. To make a very long story a bit shorter they told me I need to get a short form from FedEx. That was the easy part.

Two weeks later the FedEx PBA, ALPA and my Congressman were all making calls to the Social Security Administration asking what they needed to do so that I would have Medicare coverage for some (very serious) upcoming surgery???

Later, when it appeared as though Medicare would NOT approve my "Special Enrollment Period" exception FedEx stepped up to the plate and said that they would cover my emergency medical expenses.

In the end my Medicare application was approved and my surgery has the luxury of having time for me to get a second opinion. For a short time I was VERY CONCERNED about having NO INSURANCE!

I want to thank FedEx for being there when I really needed them. I'll take back half of the bad things I've said about them over the years.

Respectfully,

It's nice to hear a good story.

10-06-2015:12-24-2015
Well, looks like they got it all done before we even got the last installment of our 30 pieces of silver.






.

Yep, and unfortunately LAG wasn't the only one on here or FB, using hazy references such as "let's just see how it plays out for the Delta guys, it'll probably be a couple of years to possibly get a worse TA, who knows?", as a good reason to vote yes on our TA.

It embarrasses me, really, to see how frightened we were as a group to stand firm on our Openers. Meanwhile, at Delta "...82 percent voted "in favor" of the new agreement...".

Remember though, we can supplement lost opportunities for improvements to big QOL issues, and the A plan, by flying some Draft trips, plus we kept our hourly pay rates moving forward, and we can revisit retirement later on... Sad! (Tweet).

*Disclaimer: my apologies for always sounding so frickin' bitter about this, I really am not. I wouldn't change this, my dream job, for any other. However, it doesn't mean that there aren't things we can/should improve, could've/should've improved this last time. Hopefully we (specially guys who see the hourly pay rate as the end-all game), can learn from pilot groups like Delta and Southwest.

Am I missing something?

July 2015 to December 2016 = eighteen months.

Glad to see Delta is up to 4hrs/day for vacation. Maybe we should have a "safe zone" in AOC so people can express their displeasure w the majority of the crew force. No lanyards could be changed to "Not my TA"

Thanks for reminding everyone how wise I am. For the record I also gave Trump a good shot about the same time frame. I was pro TA but unlike some bitter clingers on the no side, a no vote would not have been the worst thing that ever happened. If you take off the brown colored glasses you can probably see that in my first post you quoted.

So Tony Let me ask an honest question, do you think our signing had any impact on the UPS negotiations and the subsequent Delta done deal? Or are we all out there on our own little islands?