Maint
 

Strfyr

What is the deal with the mechanic contract? Are ual mechs negotiating seperatly from cal? Aren't you IBT also? I read cal mechs got a contract already. Just wondering.

Along similar lines, I talked with a CAL FA friend of mine that said the union and company want to have a contract in place by November. I thought she was talking about the COMBINED contract with UA FAs when she said that this was strictly the CAL FA contract to last them until full combination. I guess it has something to do with two different unions. Maybe it is the same for mechanics. Something to help them transition until there is a full combination, a new union election (or choice) and then a combined contract along with seniority.

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Both sides are negotiating seperately but I'd look for the joint contract to be identical in most respects except for the Pension part. Much like you guys will probably have as well. Stay on top of it!! These guys are crafty.

Words of good old greed. We're up in arms when they outsource our flying but we're salivating over the potential of "extremely productive long haul flying" to outsource maintenance? Help me get up to speed cause I must be misunderstanding that theme. I agree with the idea of getting back that flying but not for those reasons...

Not sure if having different unions have much to do with it. UAL flight attendants have taken a different track than the pilots. They're currently negotiating to renew their own individual contract, which they've stipulated is necessary to be completed before they will entertain a joint collective agreement with CAL FA. As far as I know they have yet to acknowledge the marriage of the two companies.

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The Flight Attendants have yet to acknowledge ONE company. Pat Friend head of AFA has Long been suspect in my book, especialy after the way she dealt with Lorenzo at Eastern. They negotiated a 10 year contract at Unitedsometime back with NO dicernable Pay raises?? Then had the Temerity to call the rest of us Suckers because we actually THOUGHT we were doing something for the future in getting into the ESOP. In the end She was right. Howsumever, AFA looks out for AFA and they don't do that particularly well where they might be a force to be be considered. It will be interesting to see who comes out in the wash when UAL's and CAL's flight attendants start doing the "Tango"..

Choose your battles wisely
 

You can call me greedy, if I can call you foolish. If you think for a second that there are 1 in 20 pilots that are going out on strike, to bring sheet metal and rivet bucking jobs back to the good old U.S. of A. from Asia, you're probably eventually going to die for a cause no matter what I say here. Then again, unions have tried similar stop gaps and and failed for the past 30 years. Yet, you're still typing on a keyboard, watching a T.V. and wearing that shirt that was made in Asia. Talk about hypocrisy.

We have a skill of being able to fly. Let's at least agree to attempt to maximize compensation for the skill we provide. There are no "reasons for getting the flying back" other than GETTING THE FLYING BACK, so I'm not sure what you're alluding to. I didn't come up with the idea of outsourcing, so don't act like I did and don't act like flying the airplane over there is showing support for the decision the management at the airline has made.

I guess I can admit to being "greedy" here so long as you accept the title of foolish. Only if however you define "greedy" as demanding fair compensation for the service I provide to my airline and keeping that flying from being splintered. We'll talk more civilly when you buy an American made T.V. Until then get off your high horse.

When I first got hired we did touch and goes in the airplane in training, so I have done so in the 727 and DC-8. I would love to go up and do some in the Whale, but the fact is that I have not been trained to do so, and we do not have any procedures in our flight manuals on how to do so. Flaps and trim have to be reset, and there would presumably be a minimum runway length.

I have done quite a few ferry and verification flights, including those where passengers were prohibited. I have no problem with an intentional gear down flight in a three or four engine aircraft, under the right conditions (light weight, short distance, day VFR). I would not do so in a two engine aircraft.

What line pilots have to leave to the flight test pros are things like engine inoperative ferry flights, abnormal flight control or flap configuration flights, or inop hydraulic system flights. There are also times when an aircraft has two seemingly unrelated problems, either one of which I would be willing to fly with, but both together would seem to make it unwise.

Joe

No Other Airline Does it with Test Pilots
 

The question still stands, why does ALPA let non-union pilots take their work from them?
No other airline uses non-line holders to do MX. There is nothing they do that requires a management pilot. If you still mistakenly feel that a "Test Pilot" is needed, there are plenty of Union Pilots that are Test Pilots.

Hi Indy.

Are you seriously advocating that line pilots be required (or even allowed) to do engine inoperative ferry flights? No thanks.

Also, these are engineering pilots, not management pilots.

Joe