ZapBrannigan

They haven't even started negotiations and technically the company is under no obligation to do so until the NMB requires them to. If I were a betting man I'd say we won't see anything to vote on in 2016.

And yes, although I hate to waste negotiating capital on parking and uniforms they seem like they should be a no brainer Rolf.

Julio

Any guess as to what to expect eventually? Industry standard for pay/401k? Thanks

ZapBrannigan

Your guess is as good as mine.

e6bpilot

I got called for the polling. I requested chair massages in the lounge and Kernal Override pay.

ZapBrannigan

There is a Facebook group discussing TA2 thoughts. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Search Southwest Airlines pilot TA2

baseball

As a United / Former CAL pilot I need to warn you about PBS.

Management calls it "preferential bidding system." You enter your preferences into the computer and assign various weights. the computer crunches it out and sees if it can do it. Trouble is; it doesn't nececerily honor seniorirty. It crunches the requests simultaneously to drive a solution of zero open trips.

What pilots think it does is look at request one from pilot one and so on, until it gets to the last pilot in the base. This would honor seniority.

If you are a young kid with lots of computer skills and junior you will love PBS. You can maximize your seniority and take the premium trips while the old-timers are still trying to figure out how to bid.


You have computerized bidding, but you don't have PBS. Big----BIG difference.

Here's what management won't tell you about PBS. PBS is actually an absence management system. Managment enters in all known and forecasted absences and "highly encourages" their military pilots to enter in all their drill dates, etc before the solution runs. This is how managment can do more flying with less pilots.

At CAL, when PBS was implemented, we lost 400 pilots due to attrition. They were not replaced even though our block hours went up and we bought more jets. How could this be? Efficiences gained by PBS.

PBS was supposed to be about a 750 million dollar concession the pilots gave up in a concessionary contract. The real value was more like 1.3 billion after we had a chance to understand it. A few years later after PBS implementation we figured out where all the "efficiencies" were and why managmenet wanted PBS so bad.

PBS is an absence managment system that is designed to staff all known flying and deconflict all known and forecasted absences to drive the solution to zero open trips. The result is: pilots lose control over their schedules, cannot have any conflicts with trips (ie vacation or military leave, or other leaves/absences).

We had entire runs during both Thanksgiving and Christmas in entire bases crash. More than a few times. We had the number one B757 Captain in Newark flying Christmas one year.....Go figure....

Right now, I have two pilots junior to me getting awarded lines, but I am somehow stuck on reserve. Can't figure why PBS isn't "working" for me.

We have people that have started paid bidding services. You pay some young computer whiz-kid 100.00 per month and he bids for you. This helps keep you off reserve and avoid red-eyes.

baseball

It is my experience that the top ten percent and the bottom ten percent of line holders do OK under PBS.

The very senior can protect themselves. The very junior can steal flying from those not smart enough to crack the code.

The rest of the 80 percent of the pilot group will hate it.

PBS homogenizes the time. The number 13 pilot in a base will have the same suckey schedule as the number 88 pilot in the base.

The pairings fed is critical. Unless you (your pilot union) have absolute and total control over the pairings being built, then the company will build the pairing and drive the solution.

We had a PBS mafia within the CAL pilot group that was led by former Peoples Express pilots from our NC. They told us PBS was an "improvement". It was marketed as such because of all the fancy bells and whistles.

None of that stuff means anything unless you can out smart the guys JUNIOR to you. Seniority is gone once the junior pilots figure out how to trick the computer into giving them your trips. management doesn't care who flies the trip, but the system should be re-named: BITSBS. But In The Seat Bidding System. Because that's what it really does, puts a butt in the seat, without regard to seniority.

ZapBrannigan

I've been told that PBS is off the table anyway.

Rolf

See you guys at the IP events. About time.

ZapBrannigan

BOD and NC are meeting right now and looking over the polling data. Wonder if they'll release it to the pilot group so that we can see where the priorities lie?