Giving the MEC direction
 

There are quite a few disappointing changes in the TA, but there are also a lot of positive changes. In hopes of weeding them out and giving the MEC (current or fresh blood) some intelligent direction, would this board like to offer what they deemed to be the actual concrete concessions. As far as I can see it:

The big 3:
- Increasing CRJ-550 operational allowances

- Going back to pre FAR 117 reserve show times

- Allowing non-Ual pilots as PIs

Some of the others
- Unpaid landings class (this one is a little tough, because it cuts both ways… I listed as a concession however, because it decreases pilot options)

- LCA pay only applying to legs flown (double edge sword because the override has gone up… And so have some of the discretionary company incentives)

- Removal of untriggered reassignment pay (double edge sword because there’s a higher likelihood of getting random add pay as a normal lineholder, but it will definitely be less than 125%)

Disappointing Status Quo:

- no increase to retirement contributions. I understand the market-based plan definitely helps to spell over from those making above the IRS threshold at 16%, but I think a change here is Important.

- 18 reserve days a month. I personally think the reason people don’t want to commute to reserve, is that the five and six day a work blocks Are a long time to be apart from your family. Even if we lost a single day and allowed for different schedule construction (like a cadence function), a 17 day month would allow us to do four day work blocks per week. I personally think that would be a game changer for reserve schedule building.

- no decrease or cap on medical expenses. Given the direction this is going for all of us, it seems like an absolute no-brainer.

- A limit on line construction value, or a higher trip rig. Like reserves, I don’t think most line holders want to have to tag a 2-day onto their monthly schedule because their four four-day trips don’t get them to a high enough value for PBS.



For some people, any single one of the above our dealbreakers. For others, the combination of the above plus the unwillingness of the MEC to acknowledge that this contract is far from industry-leading leads one to the NO vote. Instead of attempting to dox or personally attack individual union members, it would be more interesting to have actual intelligent discussions about what would have to be removed in order for a TA with double digit pay increases to pass.

NC removed to start

Just to play devils advocate, are the NC bad contract writers and/or bad negotiators? Or were they been given bad direction by leadership? I honestly don’t know the answer, but I know we have some pretty intelligent people that volunteer for us. I’m all for fresh blood, but how do you figure out who is actually useful for your cause going forward? Anyone else surprised that ALPA national doesn’t have some actual professional negotiators on retainer

Doesn’t matter what they are. They agreed to this and publicly stated this is the best they can do. They’re defeated. Bring in replacements.

Yea. Can’t really argue that

You forgot 0600 day 1 reserve. That's one more deal breaker for me and I'm comfortably above the G line.

So you are saying they didn’t get the best deal they could as the ones sitting across the table? You know that the Negotiators could have gotten more?

I love that many pilots think that every thing in a contract is a separate item to be negotiated with no mixing of other stuff. Believe me I’d love it if that was the case. But a gain in one area means you don’t always get as much in another area. The totality of the contract is not negotiated in vacuum.

I haven’t decided my vote because I haven’t looked at any of the documents yet other than the initial TA announcement email from last Friday. I wanted to watch all the Town Hall information videos then read the full document based on hearing from the negotiators. Then I could read and make an informed and hopefully non-emotional decision.

Yawn. If you haven’t looked at the documents (including the opening company and ALPA openers plus town halls) you have no business in this discussion. It’s irrelevant now anyway. MEC already put it all on hold when AMR gave them an excuse to backtrack.

[QUOTE=EWRflyr;3452315]So you are saying they didn’t get the best deal they could as the ones sitting across the table? You know that the Negotiators could have gotten more?

Leverage. It’s a beautiful thing, especially in negotiations. It’s purchasing power. We have it. Why would we sit across the table and allow the Company to dictate to our negotiating team when we hold the upper hand. Seems we still have a lot of folks who are confused or think we should let the Company command the negotiations in a time when we have unprecedented leverage.

Absolutely a concession. I should have been more clear about the “pre 117 reserve show times.”