This is what I like to hear. "We" and "Unified". Very powerful if done correctly.

Eye on the prize is right.

Cheers

Hammered? How so?

DOH is not even part of the merger policy. Longevity however, is. I have spoken with quite a few Captains that you feel would get "hammered." Most of them feel that an appropriately constructed fence would protect them in their bases, if longevitiy is implemented along with the other prongs of ALPA merger policy. Which is what it all comes down to. Do we negotiate within the confines of ALPA merger policy or, do we run to the arbitrator with revisionist views to see what might stick? I would like to hear from those who wrote the current policy. Why did ALPA change it after DAL/NWA? Why did ALPA put in longevity? How do you quantify career expectations? But alas, mother alpa will stay quiet because they are neutral. I guess it all boils down to the arbitrator and the valid "mine is bigger than yours" strategy.

Well it's going to be pretty contentious. When I went on Mil leave last year, I was a 737 Captain. I lost that due to the barely mentioned "right-sizing" that occurred @ CAL for this merger. If you guys get your way I'll be Jr to 800 UAL furloughees who are on the street at this time without imminent recall prospects. It will be even worse for the 1300 active CAL pilots beneath me. And worse even for our 147 pilots currently being recalled.

When I got screwed by the Nicolau Award, I was ****ed but found other gainful employment pretty quickly elsewhere, twice. This merger is probably the worst thing that could have happened to the CAL pilot group. I still hold some hope that it will fail and you guys can merge with someone else. I assure you that the bottom 2,000 working and advancing CAL pilots feel the same. God Help us all! No personal animosity intended.

A320Fumes,
And just what other airline company would be "right" for CAL? UsAir or maybe American. I'm sure coming up with a SLI at those airlines will work out much better for CAL than with UAL. If the RJ flying is kept below the 51 seat mark...there will be huge growth for the combined UAL/CAL narrow body flying and rapid movement for the lower half of the "new" pilot group. Sit back, relax and don't get so worked up.
Skiddmark

I have talked to the person who added that longevity term and it was meant to deal with leaves (military, familiy, etc....). It was not intended to mean anything else. He will testify to this. The bottom line is it will go down pretty much by relative seniority. They are not going to put somebody on furlough ahead of any active pilots. Wih relative seniority all the "waves" of hiring in different years are leveled out and everbody continues to do what they were doing.

Fences are a good thing in some ways and very bad in others. If you are going to fence off your captains so they dont get bumped down by junior CAL captains then you must fence off all upgrades on narrow bodies for the same amount of time, and definetly all 787 flying.

Career expectaions are obviously a large variable, they will look at what the "future" BEFORE the merger looked liked and weigh it how ever they do.(I.E. upgrade time, a/c deliveries, equipment, retirements,etc...

CAL has a huge amount of Captains hired in '87. Thoses captains are junior 75 captains doing only uk trips. '97 hires at united are 777 captains holding descent stuff. You go DOH or longevity CAL junior Captains are now 777 line holding captains and the UAL capts are off to dublin from EWR.

UAL '97 hires are 777 Capts? Interesting.

Interesting. So Chuck Yeager is out in the sandbox for 5 years on mil leave. Thanks to the ALPA longevity provision, his 5 years of leave is added to what? His 13 years of service to United thereby totaling 18 years?

Im glad that ALPA instituted merger policy for what is protected under federal law.

You know... 97, 79 whatever it takes. It all works out about the same. ;)

SP