While I think it is important to always question the governance and motives of the union, I don't disagree with their post. There are a handful of people who constantly blame the union and wail and gnash their teeth over anything bad that happens, yet consistently fail to give credit where it is certainly due for their successes or show up when they are called to. It is no wonder nobody wants to run for office.

This current situation is a failure by the union to anticipate the possibility of the current situation (no historical precedence that I am aware of) and a conscious decision by the company to exploit the contract language allowing the displacements to occur in the first place.

Displaced pilots should have first right of return. Full stop. None of this "positive vacancy" bs. Vacation poachers should not be allowed to keep a pilot living in a base displaced. It clearly flies in the face of the intent of right of return. How we got here is irrelevant, though. It needs to be fixed at the first opportunity.

 

Yeah, my point wasn’t really about swapa. I was referencing the rigged game of airline union vs. management. It’s an ugly uphill slog for us, every time. Lanyard enforcer guy did an angry drive by. I suppose he was late on his blood pressure medication.

 

I see. Agree the game is rigged. Any attempt to change it and threaten the status quo of the billionaire class and their paid political minions has proven futile. Airline pilot is one of the few careers where earnings outpaced inflation over the last 20 years. That is largely due to supply/demand and concerted efforts by pilot unions to extract maximum value for their members. I wouldn't expect that intransigence to go unpunished in the future by those in power.

 

Nothing is rigged IMO. We got some pretty awesome gains this last go around. Some guys are *****ing about making too much and not putting the spillage into the cash plan. Nice problems to have. Maybe i've been around too long but this seem's kinda normal union/mangement stuff. This is my 4th union. Their is nothing out of the ordinary here. If you go on other forums, its the same thing just different players. It's the normal relations of doing business between unions and companies. I wish like you that it wouldn't be this way but it is what it is and has been for decades. Without it(SWAPA or any other union) the job wouldn't be worth it because the gains would never come.

 

Listen, I get it and agree with you on the logic behind what you are saying; however, there is a distinction between doing what you "can" do and what you "should" do. It's a bad look to bid into domiciles with displaced pilots simply for one month of vacation bidding strength, only to bid back out and then "sell" those prime vacation weeks. We all know it's happening, and in regular times, I am all for it; seniority matters, but this has a slight stink to it with people doing transcons for two years. Families are being separated, divorces are happening, we are losing good pilots to other airlines, etc.

I understand this is 100% company-caused, but as a pilot group, we could look out for our fellow pilots and do the right thing now, while making it too costly to do so in the future under a new contract. Hell, we organized a national ATC pizza-buying program on WhatsApp for what I would argue is a far less QoL issue than what some of our junior FOs have been dealing with for months to years. I would bet my retirement that they would gladly give up paychecks for 40 days (obviously with backpay like the ATC folks are getting) to have this issue resolved or minimized.

 

There you go again blaming pilots for something that the company did.

Negotiators love duping people like you into dividing the pilot group.



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It sucks that we have so many displaced pilots. The problem is, players are always gonna play. They are likely the same folks that would pick up premium on picket days, premium if guys were on furlough, or bid into bases temporarily to score on vacation. It’s legal…but a dick move. Every airline has them. Sad.

 

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How about instead of the petty sniping at fellow pilots we propose some future contract improvements?

I’ll start:

The company will fill NEW vacancies, with new upgrades and newhires.

If the company needs to move pilot staffing in excess of the number of newhires and upgrades, it will offer those vacancies to volunteers via DH lines, paid hotels, etc.

If the company needs seasonal changes in vacancies it will offer them to volunteers via stipend, DH lines, paid hotels, etc.


next……..



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FFS, I'm not blaming pilots. I'm blaming bad contract language that's allowing them to move about the system when the intent of that language is to limit it while we have displaced pilots. Damn you're dense.

Vacancy bid that closed today has pilots moving into bases where people were displaced out of them. I don't blame those pilots at all....they're doing what's allowed. I'm saying it shouldn't have been allowed in the first place...that isn't blaming pilots....it's blaming the system. If you can't understand that...I don't know wtf to tell you. It's not a hard concept.

 

Now who's the one limiting seniority? New vacancies should be filled in seniority order, not by NH and UPG. A reduction in base staffing triggers TDY lines taken on a volunteer basis in seniority order (extent of pay of TDY lines can be negotiated between swapa and company). If there aren't enough volunteers and displacements occur, nobody may reenter that base until all displaced pilots from that base are offered their spot back.