So what decade was your last respectable raise in oh great flamer?

 

Andy,

The current MC got played LIKE A FIDDLE by being "friendly", which is why we don't have a contract right now. No contract, no seniority integration. No seniority integration, serious lack of merger synergies. Etc. etc.

I encourage you to contact your MC and ask how many representatives from ALPA were on the hill at the DOJ during the time that the merger approval process. Did you notice how the pace of negotiations went from hero to zero as soon as the merger was approved?

Unfortunately, we are not dealing with SWA management. We are dealing with UAL management. If you need a lesson on how they treat their pilot group, you shouldn't have to look back too far. I remember distinctly when Glenn Tilton came to United and said something to the effect that we will never be a successful company unless we bury the hatched between management and labor. Within MONTHS, he was quoted as saying "Pilot morale is not my problem" as he BOMBED us with a waxing for the ages; most of which even THEY now admit they didn't need.

I take personal offense to the "burn the house down" comment. I, and you, have sacrificed greatly to keep this company alive. It would have been extremely easy to burn the house down during the Ch 11 process, and perhaps we should have. I'll give you Whiteford's gaffes.... unbelievable.

For you to suggest that the pilots are mostly to blame for where we/United are/is today while ignoring 9/11, SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, NASDAQ crash of 1999, world economic collapse of 2008, $145 oil, etc. etc. is simply ridiculous. I'm certainly not saying we are perfect, and I'm as peeved off at ALPA for age 65, the E-170 jets, and botching the leverage we had during the early days of this merger, but we are NOT the main cause of our own troubles.

I hope you have found successful and long-term stable employment while on furlough so that you don't have to come back to this mess... it doesn't sound like you want to be here.

 

I wonder if there will be a "out in left field" box on the combined PBS to check so that pilots of like mind can fly together?

 

Jesse,

Working hard and getting paid for it is NOT the issue. Being told how hard you must work, not earning enough to even live where you work, and having your fair share of the rewards used to pay the CEO more than 300 times the average worker's salary is. My father was an Hungarian immigrant. I grew up poor and paid my own way through private high school and then Dartmouth College by working multiple jobs all the time. Today I am fortunate to have earned, invested, and saved my way to prosperity, and I would never deny anyone the right to "work hard and get paid for it", but your boss should not have the right to tell you that if you don't work as hard as the factory worker in China then you'll be fired. As with everything in life there is a balance, and without healthy unions that balance has become tilted immensely in favor corporate management. I agree we should never encourage able bodied citizens to perform zero labor with monetary incentives, but then that is an altogether separate discussion from the topic to which I was responding namely the culpability of unions with regards to their current demise.


Joe

 

This might be your answer.

For Apr/May lines, DCA 767 F/O's gained about 20 lines of flying, but lost 20 reserves. Manpower essentially remained the same. The extra 20 lines diluted the line values for the bottom half on the seniority list by approximately 20-22 hrs/line, thereby forcing them into 70 hr lines. Instead of UAL paying 80+ line credit hrs to approximately 180 line holding pilots and the reserves get the 70 hr guarantee, they are covering the same flying with 80+ hr lines to the top 100 of the list and 70 hr lines for the bottom 100.

The beauty of it all is that we were first told there would be a shortage of flying due to an aggressive paint schedule. Then we were told due to the high cost of fuel, there would be a shortage of flying. Nope, they just shifted 70 hr reserves to 70 hour line holders, and instituted another 18% pay cut for many.

 

Sitting at home? Not hardly. Everyone's senses can't come soon enough.

YouTube - AFP's "Common Sense": Around the World on $69 Million in Welfare Funds

 

Meanwhile, CEO's and billionairs are cruising around on their 69 million boats and G-5's gained thru your tax dollars.

 

Ron, corporate welfare is off limits and shall not be discussed by the uber right.

 

Let's not forget the day Glenn Tilton was born.

 

Kind of the opposite of the 737. At CAL (at least on the 737) they reduce the number of line holders and jack up their hours for the summer. I'd guess the way the two contracts are written requires two different strategies for making it through the summer with min staffing.