An explanation by Captain SH:

I.2.b.i. Notwithstanding Section 5-B-1, the LPA for each group within a Category shall be determined by the Company and shall not have a lower bound.

Holding everyone down to MPG is exactly how this TA allows the company to minimize pilot payroll. For those who “follow the money,” holding everyone down to MPG is where the company money is in this TA. It’s likely LPA will tend to be substantially below MPG. As a result, lineholders should understand the pay cut to be 30%, 40% and 50% respectively for each group.

*I don’t know how low the LPA limbo stick will go, but let’s use 42:15 as an example. As you described, any flying pilots pick up will be for free until they reach MPG. There will be too much distance and too little open flying (a different subject) for pilots to break MPG. *

A typical lineholder accumulates 1026 annual credit hours. That’s not my number but one that was agreed between the company and union and used elsewhere in the agreement. Under this TA:

*- Lineholders in the senior group would accumulate approximately 720 annual credit hours. That’s a contractual concession of approximately 306 credit hours or 30% of current pay. *

*- Lineholders in the middle group would accumulate approximately 624 credit hours, a contractual concession of approximately 402 credit hours or 40% of current pay. *

- Using my example of 42:15 LPA, lineholders in the junior group would accumulate approximately 507 annual credit hours, a concession of approximately 519 credit hours or 50% of current pay. That may understate the contractual concession in the junior third would concede. But it’s probably pointless to refine any contractual prediction for the junior third. As a practical matter, they’re comparing 50% to zero.

 

So it's possible that there will be huge disparities between fleets and bases. Using my current BES as an example, we will have pilots in the senior, middle, and maybe even junior pots. They could build the Nov schedule using a LPA of 40, which would put the senior and middle groups below MPG (there IS a cap above LPA). This would effectively create a situation where the senior pilots are disincentivized from picking up open time since a LOT of it would be for 'free'. Even bidding at the top of the Line Credit Range would put a Senior and Middle pilot well below MPG. How about a 'carve out' that would provide MPG 'plus up'? Meanwhile, the junior pilots are already above MPG and get every minute of pay for open time. At the same time the EWR 787 has a LPA of 84... Does any of this respect seniority?

Ok...so now Dec comes and the LPA is pushed up to 70... That junior pilot who is supposedly working half the month for half the pay finds out that only applies at the companies discretion. They were planning on summer or holiday time off...not so fast. They were planning on those 22 days off per month to get their side business up and running - but what happens when they find out its really a maximum of 22 days off depending on the LPA the company decides to use. I think it's 0-84ish? By the way, they'll give you 3 weeks heads up on how many days off you'll actually have next month. You can just drop a trip right? Don't bet the farm on that one.... Maybe if you were in ORD or DCA it would be better for you since their LPAs are significantly higher or lower than EWR? I'm still digesting this, but so far I haven't seen anything that protects against large disparities in flying between bases, or a system wide average as a guardrail.

 

You sure are cherry picking numbers. In this pandemic, unless you are on the 787, the average is much much lower than 85 hours What you are also leaving out is that thousands of pilots will not be displaced and/or will be pay protected at higher payrates, thus those "concessions" you are talking about are not nearly as bad as you make seem. Additionally, if Cares 2.0 passes the mpg cuts are not going to be issue for a while. Lastly, thousands of pilots will not lose their jobs.